The Gray Raven
by Blacklight 88
Summary: The story of Tim Blackstar ZAFT top gun and legendary mobile suit pilot. Will he fall by the way side of the Bloody Valentine War or will he live to see the dawn of a new era?
1. Endymion

The Gray Raven 

Tim Blackstar was not a man to be taken lightly. Graduating as a top gun from the ZAFT pilot academy, and not long after distinguishing himself at the first battle of Jachin Due. During the conflict at Jachin he gained the alias Gray Raven for his slate gray painted Ginn and like the raven his presence generally meant something very ominous would soon come to pass this fearsome reputation and his amazing skills quickly gaining status as an ace pilot. After being put in charge of his own team for his performance and strategic abilities his Ginn was also upgraded and modified into a High Maneuver Type. Our story picks up roughly two months later at the final battle of the Grimaldi Front at the Earth Alliances Endymion Crater base were the Gray Ravens legend will begin to take shape.

Endymion Crater June 2, CE 70

Tim Blackstar, and his team had been fighting for weeks launching out of the _Laurasia_ class frigate _Lawrence_ helping to spread ZAFT's control over the moon. At the moment Tim Blackstar commander of the Blackstar team was flying through the battlefield easily blasting through several Moebius mobile armors with his 27mm assault rifle easily destroying the outdated units.

"Pathetic weak bastards can't even touch us." Tim said with contempt in his voice. Changing the frequency on his radio to a channel his team used to he called up his second in command and best friend Rodger Simmons "Rodger this is Tim do you copy?"

"_Yes sir me and Cindy are holding are positions, but we have confirmation the Moebius Zero corps is out here so there is a chance you could run into Morgan out here."_ Rodger said in his deep bass voice.

"Great just the bastard I wanted to run into out here." Tim said sarcastically hearing the mention of his nemesis name.

"_Well anyway sir just keep an eye out for him me and Cindy will hold down the fort on this end."_ Rodger said while explosions were clearly heard in the background.

"You got it Rodger Tim out." Tim said cutting off the channel while opening his regular channel.

"At last I've found you Gray Raven!" A voice shrieked over the noise over the noise of the battlefield.

It was then Tim noticed the violet colored Moebius Zero rocketing towards him. "So there you are Violet Reaper I thought some grunt might have killed you by now." Tim said with a smile.

"Shut it you know better than anyone how skilled I am!" Morgan Lestrange yelled out to his nemesis.

"What do you say we just cut the chit chat and start fighting Morgan?" Tim said placing his heavy sword in his right hand and his rifle in his left hand.

"No problem this crater will become your grave Raven!" Morgan declared arming his unit's linear gun and deploying his four gunbarrels that each bore his distinctive Grim Reaper emblem.

Tim decided to start things off "Eat this Reaper!" The Raven cried using his assault rifle to put his opponent on edge.

Morgan dodged to the side and fired his linear gun several times at the custom High Maneuver Ginn which Tim avoided by using his powerful thrusters to dodge to his machines right.

"That the best you got Lestrange?" Tim said tauntingly.

"Not by a long shot Blackstar!" Morgan said firing all his Zeros weapons and nine blasts of kinetic energy flew towards the Gray Ravens unit.

"_Not good."_ Tim thought to himself, as even with his powerful thrusters he couldn't dodge all those shots so he tried something stupid. "Try this!" The Raven roared as he temporarily dropped his rifle and gripped his heavy sword with both his mobile suits hands and slammed it into four of the incoming blasts deflecting them but also creating several large cracks in his sword. However, while he may have deflected four of them one shot hit and disabled his left leg another blew off all the armor on his right shoulder while another blew off his head antenna while the last two missed completely.

"Bingo!" Morgan's voice roared out triumphantly.

"You haven't won yet Reaper!" Tim's voice rang out flying towards the Zero at maximum speed blade in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Morgan roared "Do you actually think you can hurt me with that cracked sword!" Morgan shrieked as he fired out another salvo from his weapons.

This time though Tim had some warning and dodged every shot then as he entered melee range he cried out "Eat this!" and in one fell swoop he cut off the connector that held the Zeros top gunbarrels wire. This action however, finally caused the blade of the Ginns heavy sword to break however using his broken sword he cut the Zeros right side gunbarrels wire disconnecting the weapon before putting a few hundred meters distance between him and Morgan. "How was that?" Tim asked his nemesis a smile on his face.

"You'll pay for that Raven!" Morgan roared angrily.

Before Morgan could reply though Rodgers voice came through his radio _"Boss there's a high surge of radiation coming from the base and it's growing by the minute we should retreat now me and Cindy are already leaving you should hurry."_

"You got it Rodger I'm leaving now Blackstar out." Tim said before shutting off the radio.

"You should leave Morgan theirs a high surge of radiation coming from the base and I'm not going to stick around to see what it does." Then without waiting to see what happened Tim activated his thrusters and flew as fast as he could attempting to exit the crater. Then Tim saw it a huge surge of radiation explode out of the Earth Alliance base. "Oh shit!" Tim cried out as the blast came closer and closer to him faster than he was flying. Then Tim's eyes went clear and a slate gray seed burst in his minds eye. Tim then boosted the thrusters to maximum output pashing the throttles as far as they would go as Tim gritted his teeth but then the blast stopped just as Tim flew over the rim of the crater. Upon exiting the crater he returned to normal brow furrowed and dripping sweat as he watched the spectacular blast disperse. "No way." Was all the ZAFT ace could say because when the blast cleared the Endymion crater had been wiped clean and suddenly space became a lot quieter.


	2. Berserker

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar, Morgan Lestrange, Cindy Rollins, and Rodger Simmons.

Outside Artemis airspace January 27, Cosmic Era 71

Tim Blackstar sat in his office on the _Nazca class_ destroyer _Cold Storm_. He was reviewing the last several months in his mind. How half of his team was lost at Endymion _"Lance, Ed, Kim all of them lost in that explosion all of them good soldiers who did not deserved to be incinerated into molecules with their machines."_ Tim thought to himself _"However,_ _on the bright side high command gave what's left of us a Nazca destroyer and they have just now given us new suits so I guess it can't be all bad."_ Tim thought smiling to himself. _"Maybe I'll go down to the hanger and run some system checks and say hey to Cindy and Rodger." _Tim thought as he stood up walked out of his office and headed down to the hanger. Unlike most commanders instead of wearing the standard white he wore his red top gun uniform the same as Cindy and Rodger except that Cindy's was modified similar to Lunamaria's with the miniskirt configuration, and the top of the jacket was unbuttoned slightly to show how 'well equipped' she was. As Tim entered the hanger he saw three standard ZAFT Ginns on one side of the hanger but on the other there were three custom colored units. Immediately he saw his new slate gray CGUE with the standard CGUE armament except the rifle was replaced with a "Barrus" Heavy Ion Cannon. Beside his own he saw the Cindy working inside her new hot pink Ginn Long Range Recon Type, which was equipped, a prototype Mirage Colloid system similar to the one that would later be employed in the Tactical Air Recon Ginn another thing that made it special was it was modified to be able to be equipped with "Pardus" missile launchers on its legs and a CGUE heavy sword on it's left hip. The final unit standing in the hanger was slightly different than the other two it had started life as a standard ZAFT CGUE but in the hands of Rodger Simmons several changes were made. The CGUE was painted blood red and had armor like that of the Ginn Assault Type on the wrist and legs the wrist components containing two missiles apiece while the legs sported "Pardus" missile launchers like Cindy's and the rest of its body has the Duel Gundam's Assault Shroud all of the armor being hardwired to the CGUE's body while its left hip was modified to hold the CGUE models heavy sword and the unit wielded the standard CGUE rifle. Tim couldn't help but smile at his friend's ingenuity. "Yo Rodger, Cindy what's up!" Tim yelled at the two pilots who were hard at work in their machines cockpits.

"Hey, Raven what are you doing here?" Cindy asked cheerfully.

"Came to see you guys had a feeling you were doing maintenance on your machines so I figured I'd come down here and join you." Tim said looking into his pink haired friends eyes.

It was then Rodger emerged from his heavily modified machines cockpit "Yo Boss he said finally got a break from paperwork?" The tall African coordinator asked with a laugh.

"Rodger you should know very well by now I don't ever do paperwork." Tim said cheerfully "Plus I did need to come down here and run some system checks on the new CGUE over there." Tim said gesturing toward his motionless machine.

"Well Tim as you can see all of the parts I ordered came in and I think It might be able to take on one of those Earth Alliance G-Weapons the Le Creuset team has been chasing after." Rodger said chuckling.

"Well my new Recon Ginn has a prototype Mirage Colloid generator that will make it invisible and that makes it even better at recon missions, and blitzkrieg attacks." Cindy said proudly putting her hands on her hips.

"But Cindy doesn't that prototype they sent with your Ginn only work while your Ginn isn't moving and doesn't attacking usually require some kind of movement." Tim said with a grin.

"Shut it asshole." Cindy muttered under her breath.

"Yes maim." Tim said sarcastically doing a mock solute.

"Don't push your luck Blackstar you may be the commanding officer but, I want hesitate to rip your head off if necessary." Cindy said eyes narrowing.

It was at that moment that Captain Lewis's voice rang out over the intercom _"Commander Blackstar report to bridge we have a transmission from the Le Creuset team they wish to speak to you."_

"On my way Captain I'll be up there in a minute." And with that Lewis signed off.

"Duty calls, but I'll come back and see you guys when I'm done." Tim said as he started to walk back out of the hanger.

"Hurry back Raven." Cindy called after him.

"I'll try." Tim said nonchalantly and his friends were lost to sight as he made a turn that would take him up to the bridge.

Upon arriving at the bridge Tim noticed Rau Le Creusets face almost immediately on one of the video monitors. "Commander Le Creuset a pleasure to see you." Tim said approaching the screen.

"Ah the Gray Raven it has been to long but, I have a request I would like to make to ask of you." The masked Commander said as he addressed Tim. "As you and most of ZAFT should know by now I've been pursuing the Earth Forces new warship for two or three days now, and my ships are temporarily retreating due to damages we have received I wanted to know if you and your crew would like to give eliminating them a shot before they can get to Artemis and I can send some more of my people after them?" Le Creuset asked curtly.

"The ship with the Earth Forces new mobile suit and the Hawk of Endymion I would be honored." Tim said grinning.

"Good then I will leave it to you then Le Cruset out." The Commander said before his image disappeared from the monitor.

"Captain Lewis set an interception course for the new legged ship and tell all pilots to head to their mobile suits we have a battle to fight." Tim said as he left the bridge and Captain Lewis to obey his orders while he headed to change into his flight suit which like his mobile suit was slate gray but his flight suit also had black stripes going down it's sides. When he arrived back in the hanger Cindy and Rodger were already in their flight suits each the same color as the owner's mobile suit.

"So why are we in level battle stations Raven?" Cindy asked.

"Lets just say Rodgers about to see if his machine really can stand up to a G-Weapon." The Gray Raven said cryptically as he entered his machines cockpit and closed the door to it. Once Tim had strapped in he quickly began to run a systems check to make sure everything in his machine was working properly. Tim's gray eyes scanned over the computers systems and his fingers typed at his machines keyboard at speeds that would even amaze a coordinator. After everything checked out okay Tim closed his eyes and began to wait for what he estimated would be ten minutes before his fast ship intercepted the legged ship. Then after fifteen minutes the alarm sounded and he moved his machine to the ships launch catapult. "This is Raven launching." Tim said as he was hurled out of the ship and into space towards his target.

Following behind him was Rodger, then Cindy who flew off somewhere to best employ her sniper rifle, and then the three remaining Ginn pilots.

At that exact moment Tim saw two things launching from the Archangel the Aile Strike, and Mu La Flagas Moebius Zero.

"Sir you handle the Strike I'll take the Zero because lets face it you're the only one with a weapon that can hurt that thing." Rodger's voice said over the radio.

"You got it Tim said shutting off the channel as he an Rodger flew off to intercept their individual targets.

Rodger was actually looking forward to take on the Hawk of Endymion it would be the perfect test to try out his unit's new tricks. "Eat this!" Rodger cried out firing his leg missiles and the ones in his left wrist at Mu's Incoming Zero.

"_This might be difficult."_ The Hawk thought as he deployed and armed all his weapons and managed to destroy all of the incoming missiles fly clear through the smoking remains of the missiles and fired off on all range attack at Rodger before breaking off to put some distance between them so he could have some maneuvering room.

"Damn!" Rodger cried out as all the shots connected with his CGUE. However, fortunately for Rodger all the extra protective armor hardwired to his modified CGUE reduced the damage to next to nothing. "Thank you God." Rodger said with a huge sigh of relief "Now lets try this!" Rodger yelled out to Mu while firing three shots from his "Shiva" railgun successfully destroying one of the Zeros gunbarrels and crippling it's thrusters.

"Damn ZAFT!" Mu said banging his hand on the control panel before radioing Murrue on the _Archangel's _bridge "This is La Flaga I'm going to have to return my propulsions crippled and this red thing is way to heavily armed for me to engage as is."

"I'm sorry commander but the Nazca and those three Ginns have us covered we can't even mange to let you in at the moment but if you can hold on just a little bit longer were going to see if firing the Lohengrins will drive them off." Murrue said.

"I'll try but hurry up." Mu said quickly and then ended his transmission because Rodger was upon him.

Meanwhile Tim was in a deadlock with the Strike. Tim was attempting to blast it with his ion cannon until it's battery ran dry so he could use his conventional weapons to finish him off but it was not a very easy task. Beads of sweat were running down his forehead because every time he would fire the Strike would take it on his shield and then return fire with a beam rifle shot. "Damn this guy is good." Tim said out loud as he dodged another beam rifle shot. The Strike however, had finally had enough dropping it's beam rifle it drew out a beam saber and flew in to engage in melee "Alright lets go you hot shot!" Tim said as he activated a music file in his mobile suits database, and the computer began to play _Whisky In The Jar_ by _Metallica_ while Tim simultaneously drew his heavy sword. Since Endymion Tim had always played his favorite music when he was in battle with a really skilled opponent.

The music as it turned out was loud enough to get through to Kira Yamato in the Strikes cockpit "Is that guy listening to music in the middle of battle some ZAFT pilots are just strange." Kira said out loud as his sword of frozen fire collided with Tim's sword of metal.

"All right now this is how it's supposed to be sword against sword." Tim cried out in joy despite the fact that he could not damage his opponent at all now since he dropped the ion cannon and the fact Kira's saber would probably eventually burn through his sword of course Tim was not thinking of either of these things at the moment.

Mu La Flaga at the moment needless to say was having problems at the moment. Rodger was bearing down on him and his propulsion systems were so screwed up he could barely move._ "Shit if Murrue doesn't hurry up if gonna be blown to space dust!"_ Mu thought as his Zero barely evaded another attack by Rodger who was now using his heavy blade to try and bisect the Zero.

It was on the bridge of the Archangel they had finally locked the _Cold Storm _with their targeting systems when Murrue finally gave the order "Fire Ensign Badgiruel!" And in the CIC Natarle executed the order immediately.

On the bridge of the _Cold Storm _Captain Lewis saw the three Ginns giving fie support to the ship become engulfed in the positron blast that flew forth from the _Archangel_ Lewis had just enough time to yell one word to the bridge crew "Evade!" The _Cold Storm_ did however, completely evade the shot…almost for in a style very similar to the Vesalius took heavy damage.

On the _Archangel's _bridge the entire crew sighed in relief as the thoroughly injured _Nazca_ began to retreat.

Elsewhere on the battlefield another person was celebrating a lot more loudly than on the Archangel for Mu La Flaga was now racing back to the _Archangel _as fast as his Zero would fly while yelling into a radio linked to the _Archangel_ "Thank God Murrue do you think you could've cut it any closer that red monster almost had me.

The damage to _Cold Storm_ did not go unnoticed by Tim whose sword by this point had almost been completely burned through. _"Shit just perfect with the three Ginns gone and the Cold Storm damaged were going to have to retreat besides he's almost toasted my sword._

Kira to noticed the retreating _Nazca, which_ was now being followed by the red CGUE with all the armor, but all of a sudden he saw something approaching the _Archangel _flickering into and out of existence then it stopped and dematerialized in front of the _Archangel's_ bridge and was revealed as Cindy's pink Recon Ginn. _"Damn the Archangel!"_ Kira thought as an amethyst seed burst in his minds eye and his eyes while he reversed thrust and flew beam saber drawn at the Ginn at an incalculable speed.

Tim to saw the Ginn appear at the _Archangel's _bridge and prepare to fire on it he also saw the Strike jet off towards it Cindy will be dead before she can even squeeze off a shot…I've got to stop that guy!" Tim roared out chasing out behind the Strike.

Kira flew out in front of the Ginn as it fired taking the sniper round on its Phase Shift followed by elegantly slicing off the barrel of the rifle and then the mobile suits legs, and head. "Get ready for this!" Kira cried as he drew back his beam saber preparing to thrust it into the Ginn's cockpit still in the berserker's rage.

At the same time in the Recon Ginns cockpit Cindy had just resigned herself to death _"Oh my God I'm gonna die…Tim." _Cindy thought eyes widening as her life flashed before her eyes.

"Cindy no!" Tim cried out as in his minds eye a slate gray burst in his minds eye and his eyes became clear as he entered the berserker state his mobile suit racing for the Strike at a speed even greater than his Ginn had moved at Endymion. Then just as Kira was about to deliver the final blow Tim's CGUE slammed into the Strike making the Strike's pilot extremely disoriented as he was knocked away from the bridge.

"Cindy get to the _Cold Storm _and don't worry I can handle the Strike." Then without waiting to say if she listened, which she probably would, he flew off to continue his fight with the Strike.

Kira retaliated by firing his CIWS at the slate gray CGUE which fired its shield mounted Vulcan system in response to the Strikes attack.

"You bastard I don't care who you are you almost killed Cindy and for that I'm going to kill you!" Tim roared out to Kira.

"I want let you destroy the _Archangel _or my friends!" Kira roared back even though neither could really here what the other was saying.

Then at that moment both pilots whose faces were covered in sweat decided to have one final charge to end the fight.

"I'll kill you!" Both Kira and Tim roared out to each other as their blades locked for the final time. When their blades locked several things happened at once Kira's beam saber cut through Tim's heavy sword and cut straight down across the left side of the CGUE's face starting at what could be the CGUE's forehead then down the camera then finally stopping on the left side of the CGUE's 'chin'. While at the moment the injury was made the Strike ran out of power and the bottom half of the heavy sword that was still in the CGUE's hand cut off a piece of the left side of the Strike's face. At that moment both pilots came out of SEED mode. Tim seeing his mobile suit was now almost completely blind took off wordlessly after his retreating ship deciding to live to fight another day. While Kira also returned to his own ship.

While this entire precession had been going on Mu La Flaga had been watching it on the bridge with the stunned bridge crew. When the battlefield however, had finally been cleared and the two pilots were retreating he found himself silently asking himself _"Was that the Gray Raven?"_

Authors Notes:

Well that's chapter two and Tim Blackstar and his team have and encountered and fought with the _Archangel_. If you guys like the story send me some reviews or just don't like and want to tell me review me.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	3. The Fall of Artemis

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar, Morgan Lestrange, Cindy Rollins, and Rodger Simmons.

Outside Artemis airspace, _Cold Storm _January 27, Cosmic Era 71

Tim Blackstar landed his relatively undamaged CGUE in the hanger next to Rodger's unscathed red CGUE. _It happened again just like at Endymion only this time it was for a longer period and this time it activated in combat, and if it hadn't I know there is no way I would've been able to reach Cindy in time."_ Tim thought as he exited his machines cockpit. Upon exiting Cindy ran up to him and punched him in the chest knocking him backwards.

"Are you okay we saw that thing, and you fighting near the legged ship and we saw it cut the CGUE's face." Cindy asked worriedly.

"For starters I was perfectly fine until you gave me that very refreshing punch to the shoulder, and the mobile suits fine except half of the cameras are off line but that should only take fifteen minutes to repair, but are you okay you almost died and your Ginn got more than a blind eye?"

"Yeah, but it's gonna be out of commission for awhile and as for myself I fine." She stated flatly obviously upset about her new machine being thrashed in its first sortie.

"Where's Rodger at anyway?" Tim asked, as he could not find a trace of his other friend.

"I'm pretty sure he went up to the bridge to see Captain Lewis lets run up their and see if he's there.

"All right." Tim said as he set out for the bridge although he had another motive for going up there than just seeing if Rodger was there.

Upon arriving with Cindy at the bridge they both saw Rodger and Lewis conversing with a brown bearded man. It was then Captain Lewis spoke up noticing the pair arrived "Ah here he is now Captain Zellman." Lewis said with a grin.

"_Ah the famous Gray Raven a pleasure to see you sir my Commander Rau Le Creuset speaks very highly of you." _The man in the monitor said obviously very excited to see an ace like Tim.

"Tim Captain Zellman observed our battle with the legged ship and saw our units were relatively unscathed and since our ship is damaged and having to return to port he wanted to know if me and you would like to transfer over to continue pursuit of the legged ship." Rodger said with a grin.

"_Couldn't have said it better myself."_ Zellman said with a smile.

"Well what are the chances? I was going to come up here and ask if Rodger and me could be sent over to the ship Rau was sending and then the ship he was sending contacted us to ask if Rodger and I could transfer over to them," Tim shaking his head in amazement "Of course we except Captain." Tim said in closing.

"_Excellent commander we'll see you on the Gamow in a little while then."_ Zellman said cheerfully as his imaged disappeared from the screen.

Cindy who had remained quiet the whole conversation finally spoke up anger in her voice "So both of you jackasses are going to leave me while you go off to fight the legged ship!"

"Now Cindy you have to understand are units are not damaged beyond current means of repair and yours is almost completely dismembered." Rodger said very calmly answering before Tim could respond.

"Rodger is right Cindy and besides I've heard Yzak Joule is a pilot on the _Gamow_ and everyone knows how much you to get along." The normally stern Captain Lewis said a smirk on his face.

"I do believe Captain Lewis just cracked a joke." Tim said highly amused by the Captains last comment.

"Well since the information that Joule the asshole is onboard that ship I think I can let it slide besides he'll probably have you guys begging to come back by the time _Cold Storm_ is repaired." Cindy said eyes narrowed at Tim.

"Probably if I of course am remembering Yzak Joule correctly but at least I'll have Rodger to share my burden with me.

"Well you to had better get going then you don't want to keep your reception waiting for to long." Lewis said smiling slightly for he to had heard of Yzak Joule's reputation, but was also eager to get under way.

"You got it see you later Lewis." Tim said leaving the bridge.

Rodger quickly followed Tim, but not before saying goodbye in his deep bass voice.

Upon arriving in the hanger Rodger floated over to his machine and began to boot up the systems.

"Yo Raven!" A grizzled mechanic named Howard called out to Tim "We've repaired the camera and got it equipped with a new heavy sword and if you give us a few minutes we can repair that 'scar' on its head.

"That's okay Howard personally I like the scar it makes it look cooler and it might intimidate my opponents a little more if they see that wicked 'scar' on the suits 'face'." Tim said with a grin as he entered his mobile suits cockpit.

"All guys clear the launch area!" Howard yelled out to his fellow mechanics. _"Pilots," _He thought exasperatedly _"Always concerned about their image."_

Rodger moved up to the catapult red CGUE preparing to be launched into space. "Rodger Simmons launching!" Rodger said as his machine was hurled into space.

Tim followed suit his CGUE moving up to the catapult right after Rodger launched. "This is the Gray Raven taking off!" Tim said as his suit just like Rodgers was hurled out into space.

Then within moments both CGUEs were racing towards the _Gamow _each waiting for a rematch with the mobile weapons of the _Archangel_.

Outside Umbrella of Artemis _Gamow_ January 27, Cosmic Era 71

When both ace pilots CGUEs landed in the hanger next to the Blitz, Buster, and Duel Gundams and exited from their mobile suits they were immediately escorted to the bridge by two aids. Upon arriving at the bridge they saw Captain Zellman conversing with three teenagers dressed in ZAFT top gun uniforms.

"Ah are guests have arrived." Zellman said upon noticing Tim and Rodgers arrival, which caused the three top guns to turn around and face the newcomers.

"Oh it's just Rollins boyfriend and his little flunky." Yzak said obviously agitated by the presence of his nemesis Cindy Rollins friends who had showed up to give him backup no less.

"Don't push it Joule." Both Tim and Rodger said at the same time.

"Just ignore Yzak and by the way I must say it's a pleasure to meet the legendary Gray Raven and Rodger Simmons and by the way my name's Nicol Amalfi." The green haired top gun said cheerfully.

"Ah it's good to meet you both Tim and I have met your parents and they told us so much about you by the time they were done we thought we already knew you." Rodger said with a chuckle.

"And this is Dearka Elsman." Zellman said gesturing towards the blonde teen standing near Yzak.

"A pleasure to meet you both Yzak has told me a lot about you however he generally said you both were bumbling idiots who were being manipulated by an evil bitch." Dearka said shaking both their hands.

"Well it seems you two are both well acquainted with Yzak so I suppose there isn't much need to introduce you." Zellman said pleasantly.

"Can we get back to planning our strategy Captain?" Yzak said trying desperately to avoid the vicious death glares being given to him by Tim and Rodger.

"Of course Yzak now that everyone is acquainted with each other." Zellman said cheerfully as they all began to move back over to the map of Artemis they were crowded around before Tim and Rodger showed up.

"Now as I was saying before the Blitz has it's Mirage Colloid which makes it invisible to all forms of detection if I can slip in while the barrier is down and destroy some of the shield generators we can go in after the legged ship." Nicol said finishing his proposal.

"Sounds like a good plan those Eurasian fools at Artemis are so full of themselves and that damn umbrella they will never see it coming." Tim said giving his approval of Nicol's strategy.

"Whatever as long as I get another shot at the Strike." Yzak said a smile on his face as he spoke each word.

"If we run into him a call the Hawk of Endymion though." Rodger said wishing to finish his battle with the Earth Alliance hero of Endymion Crater.

"So it is then Nicol you had better get to the Blitz and the rest of you are free to do what ever you wish until the Umbrella shields are down." Zellman said as he watched them all leave the bridge.

Rodger headed off to his CGUE to make sure it was functioning properly before he headed into combat while Yzak and Dearka went to an observation room overlooking the hanger while Tim followed them having nothing else better to do. Upon arriving in the room the saw the Blitz activate and begin to make launch preparations.

"The Earth Forces sure know how to build powerful mobile suits." Dearka said offhandedly.

"The Blitz's ability's however do suit a coward like Nicol." Yzak said with a smirk.

"He's using that suit for what it was meant for Yzak what you may judge as cowardice is actually tactical brilliance." Tim said after hearing the silver haired mans last remark.

"Figures you'd stick up for his tactic Blackstar I here your girlfriend's using a suit with Mirage Colloid now to." The top gun retorted.

"For starters were just friends and not all of us are pig headed, idiots like you who believe the only way to solve a problem is by busting in guns blazing or blasting something until your either out of ammo, or the target has been completely annihilated." Tim replied back calmly.

Dearka who had remained silent the whole conversation while watching the Blitz launch finally spoke up "Now hold on guys were supposed to be fighting the Earth Forces so save it for the battlefield."

"That's right Dearka I'll see you and Joule later I'm gonna go down and check on my machine." Tim said as he turned to exit the room.

After Tim had left Yzak could be heard saying to Dearka "That bastard really gets on my nerves."

When Tim arrived in the hanger he saw his mobile suit standing by Rodgers the mark from the Strike's beam saber distinctly visible on it's face. Tim took a moment to admire his machine the scar only making it look more unique. After a few moments he entered his mobile suits cockpit preparing for the next battle.

Inside Artemis defense perimeter

It hadn't taken Nicol to arrive at the base under cloak. _"Well might as well get this over with."_ Nicol thought to himself as he opened fire on one of the emitters with his beam rifle setting off the alarms. Within moments after destroying the first Nicol had destroyed dozens of emitters with his rifle and saber. _"That should disable the Umbrella."_ Nicol thought as he quickly radioed the _Gamow_ telling them the Umbrella was down.

_Gamow _launch catapult

Within moments of the transmission Rodger and Tim had maneuvered their suits to the catapult. "This is the Gray Raven heading out." Tim said as his machine blasted off towards Artemis.

"Rodger Simmons launching." Rodger said as he followed his friend out into space while the Duel and Buster followed him.

Inside Artemis

"_First that bastard Garcia now this."_ Kira thought as he launched from the _Archangel _in the Sword Strike. It was upon launching that Kira soon saw the cause of the attack it was the Blitz.

"The Strike!" Nicol cried out firing his rocket anchor at Kira who countered with his own rocket anchor.

The Strike then drew its ship-killing sword and locked blades with the Blitz's beam saber putting them in a stalemate.

Meanwhile the other four ZAFT pilots were attempting to enter the base as swarms of Moebius units flew out to impede their progress.

After several minutes of blasting Rodger and Dearka had finally had enough "Take this they both cried simultaneously firing their entire complement of missiles into the horde of Moebius units creating a massive of explosion.

Both Tim and Yzak stared at the carnage for a moment dumbfounded by the chaos caused by their teammates but after a moment they all entered the base all four searching for the legged ship and its mobile weapons.

Oblivious to the carnage outside the Strike and Blitz pilots traded blows with their swords each gaining no more progress than the other. It was then the _Archangel _decided to add to the confusion by firing its 'Gottfrieds' and 'Valiants'.

Kira then heard Murrue's voice come through on his radio _"Kira latch onto the Archangel were getting out of here!"_

Without hesitation Kira fired his rocket anchor onto the _Archangel's_ hull just as the _Archangel_ began to move at maximum thrust leaving Nicol and the Blitz in the dust.

Dearka and Rodger had entered Artemis way ahead of Yzak and Tim so it was they who first had the _Archangel_ blow past them at maximum thrust.

"Was that the legged ship?" Dearka asked, as he looked in the direction the white ship had gone.

"I believe so." Rodger said as he and Dearka turned their machines around and began pursuit of the _Archangel_.

Yzak and Tim however saw the legged ship coming "It's the legged ship and the Strike!" They both said together as the monstrous ship flew towards them with the Strike in tow. They both fired several shots at it but just like it had done to their three comrades it blew past them out into open space. When the other three caught up with Tim and Dearka the _Archangel_ was vanishing from sight while the only sound that could be heard was Artemis falling apart from the battle that had been fought within it and Yzak cursing.

Authors Notes:

Well that's chapter three and Artemis has fallen so send me some reviews and tell me how you liked disliked or what improvements you think I could make.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	4. The Almost Silent Sojourn

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar, Morgan Lestrange, Cindy Rollins, and Rodger Simmons.

_Gamow_, January 28, Cosmic Era 71

Once Tim arrived back in the hanger he exited his CGUE and prepared to head to his temporary quarters and change into his top gun uniform because after several hours of being in the flight suit he was starting to get a little uncomfortable.

"Dammit the Strike got away again and so did the legged ship and the only one who even managed to engage it was Nicol who didn't even scratch the damn thing!" Yzak shrieked angrily.

Then just as Tim was about to leave Rodger with him Tim called out to Yzak "Don't worry Joule the next time we fight it Cindy will probably be here so you and her can back each other up." Tim and Rodger just ran for there quarters as fast as they could so they didn't get to hear the long string of curses that came out of Yzak's mouth at the mention of Cindy. As soon as Tim arrived back in the quarters Zellman was letting him reside in he immediately changed into his very comfortable top gun uniform. _"Whew, I never thought I was gonna get out of that flight suit." _Tim thought to himself as none other than Nicol Amalfi himself walked into the room clad in his own top gun uniform.

"Uh Commander Blackstar…I wanted to know if I could speak with you?" Nicol said slightly hesitant at first.

"Of course you can ask me anything just don't call me Commander Blackstar call me Tim, or Raven I'll settle for either." Tim said smiling

" Well Raven Dearka mentioned to me that you stood up for me when Yzak called me a coward for using the Mirage Colloid I just wanted to thank you." Nicol said quietly.

"Think nothing of it stealth is after all a legitimate war tactic and besides Yzak seems the only way to win is to charge in head on firing everything you've got." Tim said shrugging. "But by the way Nicol I've wanted to ask you something since I leaned you were on the _Gamow_…why are you fighting? Your parents when Rodger and I met them they told us you were a pianist and a really gentle person what is a person like you doing out on the battlefield." The Raven asked questioningly.

"I want to end this war as quickly as possible and I believe that I can make a difference I don't care about any ones genes all I want is the independence of the PLANTS and that is why I fight!" Nicol said pride in his eyes.

"Nicol you are a far better man than I." Tim said crossing his arms.

"Well Raven why is it you fight?" Nicol asked curiously.

"Nicol I don't fight for independence like you I fight for something less noble I fight for vengeance." The Raven said a sudden sadness appearing in his eyes but he continued on "Nicol many believe that I was born in the PLANTS but I was actually born in Orb and came to the PLANTS to join ZAFT." Tim said running a hand through his black shoulder length hair.

"But what are you trying to avenge." Nicol asked seeking a more elaborate answer.

"Nicol a years ago when I was twenty one my parents Kevin and Lisa Lionheart members of one of Orbs noble families went up to Copernicus to try and help work out a peace agreement between the sponsor nations and the PLANTS my sister Katherine and my girlfriend at the time Blair Summers went up with them. I was going to go up to meet them but my flight had a delay from what I could peace together when the bombing of the meeting took place Blair and Katherine went with my parents to observe so when it was bombed my entire family was wiped out and the love of my life with them." Tim said as a tear rolled down from his left eye he paused to wipe it before continuing "I later learned that it was Blue Cosmos behind the attack and not long after found out Blue Cosmos was also pulling the strings behind the Earth Alliance so I swore an oath of vengeance to take down Blue Cosmos and anything associated with it." Tim said stopping.

"Wait your really Tim Lionheart but you disappeared for almost a year everyone thought you were dead." Nicol said in astonishment.

"Like I said Nicol that whole time I was at the ZAFT piloting academy training and then I became a top gun were I also met my friends Rodger and Cindy then after that I was unleashed at Jachin Due and took so many lives I lost count of the blood I shed in the name of my vengeance where I became known as an ace and was quickly promoted up to the rank of commander but that's also were I met my nemesis Morgan Lestrange." Tim said coldly.

"Who's Morgan Lestrange?" Nicol asked not very familiar with the name.

"He's called the Violet Reaper and he was part of the Moebius Zero Corps and a member of Blue Cosmos however, I haven't seen him since we clashed at Endymion so I don't even know if he's among the living anymore." Tim said icily.

"But how can you destroy an entire organization like Blue Cosmos by yourself." Nicol asked not knowing if any of this was real it was all happening so fast for the Lionheart family of Orb was very well known and when the last known successor seemingly just vanished it made headlines.

"I may not by able to take them all down but I do have a primary target the leader of Blue Cosmos Muruta Azrael he's the bastard that orchestrated the attack at Copernicus and if I can take him down and as many of his Blue Cosmos supporters with him and maybe the Earth Alliance if possible." Tim said eyes drawing into slits.

"I never realized that the Earth Alliance was that corrupt." Nicol said quietly "But if you need any help you can count on me.

"Thanks Nicol I appreciate it and if you ever need anything just tell me."

"You know I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Nicol said with a grin.

"I agree and Nicol I would deeply appreciate it if you didn't say anything of what you learned here today not even Cindy or Rodger know about what drives me to the goal I wish to accomplish." Tim said warming back up.

"No problem friend." Nicol said shaking Tim's hand.

Then Zellman's voice rang out over the intercom _"All pilots report to the hanger and all crew to level one battle stations enemy Nelson class approaching."_

"Guess we should get going." Nicol said face instantly serious.

"I believe your right but this means I have to get my flight suit back on and I've only had it off for about an hour." Tim whined as he began to remove his top gun uniform and replace it with his flight suit.

"I'll meet you in the hanger." Nicol said running off to dress in the pilot's locker room.

When Tim had switched into his flight suit and exited the room heading to his mobile suit he ran into Rodger.

"He buddy going my way?" Rodger asked cheerfully as they ran towards the hanger together.

"Ready for a battle Rodger?" Tim asked feeling enlightened by getting some of what he'd said to Nicol off his chest.

"Yeah at least these enemies want have Phase Shift Armor." Rodger said sounding relieved.

As they reached the hanger Tim retorted back I don't know what your complaining about you never fought the Strike I did you went straight after the Zero.

"So I did Rodger said with a smile as he entered his CGUE.

Tim noticed the Blitz, Buster, and Duel had already launched "Well I believe were late Tim said to himself while booting up his CGUE.

"Tim approached the catapult and once he was given the okay sign to launch he cried out "This is Raven launching!" Eyes gleaming at a chance to take out some of what he deemed Blue Cosmos controlled drones.

Battle Field

As the _Nelson _class fired shots back and forth with the _Gamow_ the _Nelsons _Moebius units battled the mobile suits of the _Gamow._

"Take this you natural bastards!" Yzak cried out blasting one of the mobile armors to cinders with his beam rifle.

Dearka opened fire on five incoming Moebius units destroying them all with his missiles and beam rifle, and gun launcher "That's what I'm talking about." Dearka cried out in triumph in his voice.

As Tim arrived at the battlefield with Rodger they split up Rodger going to support Nicol rifle firing in one hand sword clutched in another while his rail gun fired while Tim fired off some shots at some unlucky machines with his ion cannon.

"_This is to easy a mobile suit alone is more than a match for a mobile armor but since I'm using the ion cannon it's kind of like overkill."_ Tim thought to himself as he blew another Moebius into space dust after which he took a moment to switch over to a normal channel on his radio to see if he could hear any enemy chatter.

Almost immediately a voice came over the radio shrieking, _"Do not ask for who the bell tolls it tolls for thee!"_

Tim instantly flew to his left, as his CGUE would move barely missing the torrent of kinetic energy that surely would have killed him if he had been there a moment longer.

"Damn I missed." The voice said.

Tim saw the unit the voice had come from and almost laughed the color scheme of the unit combined with what the pilot said before he shot at Tim "Is that you Reaper?" Tim asked loathing in his voice.

"Indeed it is Raven I see you got a new suit but the color gave it away." The Reaper said returning the same amount of hatred Raven had given him in his voice.

"Well your colors don't exactly disguise your identity either you Blue Cosmos bastard!" Tim shouted at Morgan as he began to activate the music file in his computer.

"Fine you damn coordinator freak!" Morgan said flying forward firing another salvo from his weapons at the gray CGUE just as Tim's music file began to play _Stand Alone_ by _God Smack_.

Tim dodged his suit to the side and fired off a shot from his ion cannon at the passing violet Zero blowing off the Zero's linear gun while causing some minor damage to the Zero's underside. "Take that you bastard!" Tim cried out coldly

Inside the Zeros cockpit a few alarms began to go off and some of the mobile armors systems had been fried by the extreme heat from the ion cannon _"The damn freak has gotten better!" _Morgan angrily thought to himself as he fired some more shots at the Ravens CGUE with his gun barrels.

"Since Endymion I think you've gotten worse Morgan." Tim said firing a few shots with the Vulcan gun in his mobile suits shield.

"Well take this!" Morgan cried firing his gun barrels at the CGUE again this time blowing off it's head crest and the heavy sword on it's hip effectively incinerating the sword and the hard point on the units hip that held the sword after which Morgan crooned at arrogantly "Maybe I have gotten a little rusty but at least I don't have an over blown ego that affects me piloting."

"You've got a lot of nerve talking about egos Morgan!" Tim cried out as he tore one of the Zeros gun barrels apart with his shield Vulcan gun.

"I may have a healthy ego but my skills have earned me my own _Nelson_ class the _Gilgamesh_ and now I have command of my own troops speaking of which Thompson, Terry, Filch shoot him down!" Morgan cried out as three Moebius units came out of hiding and with their linear guns and entire compliment of missiles at the lone CGUE.

"Shit!" Tim cried out firing his cannon, which vaporized the missiles and even caused one to alter its trajectory so that it crashed into a shot from a linear gun. However, several shots did hit the CGUE blowing away it's ion cannon, left shoulder, and one shot even flew past the CGUE's right shoulder and blew off part of it's thrusters.

"Perfect now the finish!" Morgan roared as he fired out as many shots from his remaining gun barrels as he could at the damaged CGUE.

"No way Nicol Amalfi!" Cried out taking the blasts on his shield before blowing off two of the Zero's gun barrels one with a beam rifle shot and the other with a lancer dart.

An instant later the Moebius belonging to Filch was sliced in half as Rodger sliced right through it with his custom mobile suits heavy blade not even giving Filch time to scream.

"Tim you okay me and Nicol saw those bastards sneak up on you and thought you could use a little assistance." Rodger said almost jokingly as his CGUE came to a stop beside his friends.

"Thanks you guys the assistance is appreciated." Tim said with a smile to his friends.

"No problem." Nicol and Rodger said in unison.

"Another day then Raven!" Morgan said as he and all of his surviving mobile armors returned to the retreating _Gilgamesh._

Even as the enemy ship retreated another ship was approaching the victorious _Gamow_ the new ship was a_ Nazca _and was being escorted by a fully repaired pink Recon Ginn.

"Hey Tim, Rodger boy do we have a surprise for you guys." Cindy said very excitedly as she approached the mobile suits and battleship the _Cold Storm_ coming up behind her.

"That sounds great I need some good news." Tim said wearily as he Rodger, and Nicol flew towards the incoming battleship and entered its hanger.

Authors Notes:

Well that does it for chapter four Tim has revealed his past and reason for joining ZAFT to his new found friend Nicol Amalfi and has reencountered his nemesis Morgan Lestrange. Send me some reviews and stay tuned for the next chapter of The Gray Raven.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	5. Its Just Like Christmas

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar, Morgan Lestrange, Cindy Rollins, and Rodger Simmons.

_Cold Storm_, January 29, Cosmic Era 71

Once Tim arrived in the hanger followed by Rodger and Nicol he exited his battle scarred CGUE just as Cindy's Ginn landed next to Nocol's Blitz.

"Rodger, Tim it's good to see you guys." Cindy said jumping out of her mobile suit and running up to her friends.

"It's good to see you to Cindy Tim said while giving her a hug.

"Now I see why Yzak keeps saying those to are together they seem really close." Nicol said to Rodger who was standing near Nicol.

"Personally I wouldn't mention something like that around either of them Nicol or especially Yzak Joule." Rodger said quietly so only Nicol could hear.

"I'll keep that in mind as now Cindy ran up and gave Rodger a bear hug.

"It's good to see you to Cindy." Rodger said returning the hug.

"By the way who's this?" Cindy asked inquisitively gesturing towards Nicol.

"This is mine and Rodgers new friend Nicol Amalfi and the pilot of the recently appropriated GAT-X207 Blitz Gundam." Tim said proudly gesturing towards his newfound friend.

"A pleasure to meet you Cindy I've heard so much about you." Nicol said offering his hand for Cindy to shake.

"A pleasure to meet you to Nicol any friend of Rodgers and Tim's is a friend of mine Cindy said taking Nicol's hand and shaking it.

"Anyway Cindy what is this surprise you mentioned." Rodger asked now that the reunions and introductions had been made.

"Well let me take you to Howard and he can show you personally." Cindy said with a grin.

"Okay then." Tim said as Cindy began to lead the three men to where the mechanic was.

When they arrived at the other side of the hanger what they that the mechanics had laid out stunned them so Rodger decided to speak first "New parts."

"Exactly and by the way it's good to see you guys!" Howard called up to Tim and Rodger as he replied to Rodgers statement.

"Hey Howard how are you?" Tim asked with a smile as he floated down toward the mechanic followed by Cindy, Nicol, and Rodger.

"Fine Tim and how are you?" Howard asked clasping the black haired young man's hand.

"Moderately well considering I just got my suit all shot up." Tim replied jokingly to the mechanic.

"Don't worry we may be able to fix that up in a minute." Rodger said with a cryptic smile as he turned his attention to Rodger "So Rodger how are you?"

"Just fine Howard and might I say you look like you've been overworked." Rodger said clasping the mechanics hand just as Howard had clasped Tim's.

"Well Rodger fact is I am, but in a few minutes I think you'll like the fact the way I do." Howard said giving off another cryptic smile "And by the way who is this?" Howard asked gesturing toward Nicol.

Before Rodger or Tim could reply Nicol did so for himself "Nicol Amalfi of the Le Creuset team and I am a friend of Tim's and Rodger's." Nicol said shaking the mechanics hand.

"Now that were all caught up and past the introductions Howard do you think we could show Tim and Rodger what about the new parts we have for them." Cindy said obviously very excited about whatever it was the parts were for.

"All right woman any way guys I think you'll like this." Rodger said as he lead the group over to the collection of parts and once there he began to reveal what they were for "Boys when we went back to the homeland to have the _Cold Storm_ here repaired we were given special orders to pursue the new legged ship once are ship was repaired and because of the fact that we only had one weapon at the time of our first encounter with the Strike mobile suit that could harm it which was Tim's ion cannon the council gave us orders to receive some of the latest weapons in the ZAFT arsenal gentlemen we now have beam weapons!" Howard said his excitement bursting out.

Tim's eyes lit up after Howard's statement "Howard are you serious?"

"You bet I am!" Howard said obviously thrilled to have finally told the pilots what the parts were.

"What kind of parts are they Howard?" Rodger asked exhilarated that they now had weapons that could help them defeat the Strike.

"Well Rodger for your CGUE we have to beam sabers that will be mounted on your hips, but because of this you will have to lose your heavy sword, and we also have you your very own beam rifle." Howard said describing the new features Rodgers CGUE would have.

"That sounds fine Howard I can't wait to test them in battle." Rodger said a grin coming across his face…_Especially on the Hawk of Endymion." _ Rodger thought to himself afterwards.

"Your upgrades are a little more extensive Tim." Howard said calmly now that after several moments he had regained his composure from the earlier excitement.

"How so?" Tim asked curiously.

"Well since Rodger has so much equipment hardwired to his suit we couldn't give him the same upgrades, but before I go on any further how much damage has your CGUE sustained." Howard asked.

"The head crest has been blown off, the flight unit has sustained a little damage, and my heavy sword was disintegrated along with part of the left hip, part of my left shoulder is damaged, and my ion cannon was blown to scrap." Tim said citing off his list of damages.

"Well good news the upgrades for your suit cover all the damages you get a brand new flight unit, new head crest, and as for weapons you get to thermal cannons mounted on your CGUE's shoulders, and a heavy laser sword which has a beam blade on a metal sword."

"That sounds perfect that will make me more than a match for the Strike!" Tim cried out.

"Well I guess it won't be long before ZAFT puts beam weapons into full scale mass production then." Nicol said glancing over at the parts.

"That's right kid these beam weapons will revolutionize our military." Howard said while scratching the back of his head.

"By the way Howard does Cindy have beam weapons now?" Rodger asked curiously.

"As a matter of fact I do I now have a beam sniper rifle, and two beam sabers in some custom built recharge racks on my Ginn's forearms." Cindy said proudly

"Well now that we have beam weapons and combined with the units from the Le Creuset team the legged ship doesn't stand a chance!" Tim said confidently.

"By the way Tim when I modify the CGUE do you won't me to remove its scar or have you had it removed?" Howard asked.

"Like I told you before I went to the _Gamow_ Howard I like that scar it makes it look more intimidating plus it looks cool." Tim said to the mechanic.

"Okay, okay what ever you say Commander." The mechanic said while thinking to himself _"Why do I even try with this guy?"_

"By the way Raven why does your CGUE have that mark on its face anyway?" Nicol asked for it had puzzled him why that mark was on there in the first place.

"Well it's a battle scar my CGUE received when I fought the Strike for the very first time and I keep it as a memento of that battle."

"Well I can understand that." Nicol said smoothly "But do you have a grudge against the pilot or anything?"

"No nothing like that but I do see him as a worthy opponent, but while were on the subject of my CGUE since the ZAFT made all these special upgrades for the CGUE does the CGUE have a special variant designation like the Ginn High Maneuver type." Tim asked with curiosity while running a hand through his jet-black hair.

"As a matter of fact it does it's called a CGUE DEEP Arms." Howard said answering Tim's question he had clearly read up on this new CGUE model.

"By the way where are yours and Rodgers top gun uniforms?" Cindy asked raising an eyebrow.

"Still on the _Gamow_ probably." Rodger replied gazing toward his CGUE.

"Don't worry I'll go collect them and bring them back for you." Nicol said as he turned around and began to head towards the Blitz.

"Thanks man we appreciate it." Tim said waving at his friend then turned to Howard "Well Howard I'm just going to leave you to your work and I'll see you to later." Tim said yawning while addressing Rodger and Cindy while he kicked off the hanger floor and began to head to his own quarters to get some much deserved sleep.

_Cold Storm_, February 2, Cosmic Era 71

It had been four days since Commander Tim 'Gray Raven' Blackstar had returned to his ship and time had passed very slowly giving him time to reflect upon the last few days. For two days since coming back he had mostly kept to himself sleeping and eating in his quarters except for the time he left to say hello to Captain Lewis. Howard had finished modifying his CGUE so he had spent the majority of his time afterwards in it's cockpit working on it's operating system and seeing what amount of performance he could squeeze out of the new upgrade parts. From what he could tell he should be able to at least compete with a G-Weapon now and that at the moment was saying something. Unlike many quarters in the _Cold Storm_ his had a view port so gazing out at the stars he thought to himself _"Wish something exciting would happen." _

He thought to himself as the _Cold Storm_ along with the _Gamow_ continued to advance through space on the trail of the _Archangel_.

_Gilgamesh_ Bridge, February 2, Cosmic Era 71

Morgan Lestrange sat on the bridge of his ship in the Debris Sea going over some data they had just received from an anonymous informant. It seemed a so-called incoming civilian ship _Silver Wind_ was actually a ZAFT operated vessel according to the information. "Captain Feral prepare to launch our Moebius units to intercept that ship." Morgan ordered the Captain of the ship.

"Yes sir I'll launch our Moebius units." The large, bearded, obese Captain said instantly obeying his Commanders orders.

"All coordinator scum must die in order for our blue and pure world to became a reality." Morgan said gazing out at the incoming _Silver Wind_.

"Indeed sir." Feral replied back to his commander as the mobile armors began to attack the defenseless, civilian ship.

Debris Sea near battlefield

Nearby a team of Junk Techs who just happened to be passing through the area saw the conflict.

"What are those bastards doing?" Roared Lowe Gear pilot Junk Tech and pilot of the MBF-02 Gundam Astray Red Frame upon seeing the mobile armors attacking the defenseless civilian ship.

"Now hold on Lowe we probably shouldn't interfere." Lowe's teammate and friend Liam Garfield said sagely.

"Probably Liam but I'm not gonna let these guys get away with this." Lowe said as the Red Frame drew its "Gerbera Straight" katana while his mobile suit flew into the fray.

"Sometimes I wonder why I even try Kisato." Liam said to another teammate of his and Lowe's Kisato Yamabuki who like Liam was flying a non-combat mobile armor the Kimera.

"I know what you mean Liam think of all the conflict we could avoid if Lowe actually thought things through sometimes." Kisato said with a sigh.

Mean while on the battlefield Lowe had engaged the Moebius units slicing into them with his katana. "I'll teach you assholes to pick on civilians." Lowe cried pout as he sliced through another Moebius with absurd ease.

_Gilgamesh_,Bridge

"What is that red mobile suit?" Captain Feral cried out as Lowe bisected another mobile armor.

"I don't know Captain but since it's attacking our people I' going to assume it's with ZAFT and I'm going to shoot it down!" Morgan declared as he exited the bridge and headed down to the hanger to his Zero.

Battlefield

Lowe did not know how many mobile armors he had put down but there certainly were a lot of them still coming and then he felt something graze the Red Frame's left leg "Shit what was that?" Lowe yelled out as some of the armor was blown off. Then he saw it the violet colored Moebius Zero flying towards him at top speed linear gun firing a storm of blasts at the mobile suit. _"Perfect." _Lowe thought to himself as he made his mobile suit fly upwards then do a front flip toward the Zero who's pilot didn't have a clue what was going on. "Take this!" Lowe roared out as landed on top of the Zero and sliced downward through its top gun barrel and main propulsion system.

"Damn what kind of move was that?" Morgan thought not actually fully comprehending what had just happened.

"Gotcha Lowe." Said with a grin as he boosted off of the Zero, which had been crippled in most regards.

"Yeah cocky upstart I'll show you what the Violet Reaper can do!" Morgan shrieked as he used the thrusters in his Zeros gun barrels to blast off towards Red Frame.

"_What's that idiot doing?"_ Lowe thought as the Zero entered range of his katana.

However, just as Lowe was about to Slice the Zero right down the middle the Zero opened acted as if to turn around but deployed its three gun barrels and turned its linear gun and opened fire "Take that!" Morgan roared out in triumph as the suit lunged forward he would not be able to escape the blasts.

"Shit!" Lowe cried out as the shots blew off several large portions of his armor.

It was at that moment an explosion issued from the _Silver Wind_ and an escape pod shot off into the Debris Sea.

"Another time then." Morgan said as he flew his battered Zero back to the _Gilgamesh _which was leaving the battle zone followed by a few surviving Moebius units leaving Lowe and his friends in the Debris Sea where they would soon participate in battle once more.

Authors Notes:

Well that concludes chapter five and I hope who ever reads this thing enjoyed the appearance of Lowe and the Red Frame I included in this thing. Somebody review me soon and tell me what they think.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	6. The Calm Before The Storm

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar, Morgan Lestrange, Cindy Rollins, and Rodger Simmons, and Howard Stevens

_Cold Storm_, February 5, Cosmic Era 71

Several days had passed and still the crew of the _Cold Storm_ hadn't had the chance to see their newly upgraded suits in action. However Commander Le Creuset's flagship _Vesailius _had finally linked back up with it and the_ Gamow_. The three ships had received word that they were to also to begin a search for the now MIA Lacus Clyne until her fate was determined after which they would return to their original assignment. Tim was wandering the halls not really having much to do. It was then he happened to pass Cindy's room and heard a loud high-pitched scream. " Hang on Cindy!" Tim shouted as he opened the lock on the door. It was upon stumbling in Tim immediately realized he had made a mistake. Not realizing the tune of the heavy metal song Cindy had playing therefore mixing it up with her voice_"Oh damn!"_ Tim thought as he turned beat red and a small trickle of blood dripped out of his nose. For Cindy who had obviously just gotten out of the shower had her pink hair combed back and was clothed in her pink underwear.

It was out that moment she turned around giving Tim an eyeful of an all to small and tight bra and the overly large things in it "Tim?" She asked a little stunned.

"Hey Cindy." Tim said meekly turning even redder than he already was if that was possible.

"Tim!" Cindy roared out through gritted teeth and then cocking back her arm.

"_Damn."_ Tim thought as he prepared for the inevitable.

"Pervert!" Cindy roared out as she ran forward and slammed her fist into the side of Tim's face knocking him clear out into the hallway because despite her appearance Cindy was quite strong even by coordinator standards.

Tim was sprawled out in the hallway as Cindy walked out with a towel over herself and kicked him in the stomach before going back in her room and locking he door.

"God." Tim called out exasperatedly "What did I do so wrong that I deserved that?" Tim said as he attempted to stand back up and fell back down.

_Cold Storm_ Bridge

Captain Lewis and the bridge crew had erupted in laughter having just seen the entire event transpire except for what Tim saw in Cindy's room, which they could guess at without much difficulty.

"Lt. Rollins may not be speaking to Commander Blackstar for awhile." Lewis said about to fall out of the Captains chair.

"I doubt Commander Blackstar will be able to move for awhile." The communications officer said looking up at Captain Lewis.

"That's putting it lightly." The CIC said almost in tears while directing his comment at the communications officer.

The bridge crew decided to review the footage and filled the vast silence of space with their laughter and in another part of the ship another person was adding howls of pain to the laughter.

_Archangel _Mu La Flagas quarters, February 5, Cosmic Era 71

The Hawk of Endymion sat in his quarters pondering over the events of the last couple of weeks on the _Archangel._ After escaping from Artemis the had made a last ditch attempt to get some supplies by heading into the Debris Sea and taking water in the form of ice from Junius Seven. During which they encountered a Ginn Recon Type that was searching the wreckage of a ship as if looking something. It had sited Chandra and Kuzzey in their worker pod and probably would have destroyed them while transmitting the data of what was occurring to any other ZAFT forces in the area if Kira hadn't blasted it to pieces. Then to top it off Kira just happened to find and bring aboard the life pod containing Lacus Clyne daughter of the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council. _"If we ever do reach the Moon we are going to have a lot to explain."_ Mu thought to himself sighing as he scratched the back of his head. But Mu's thoughts kept returning to the team that attacked them after they had fought with the _Vesailius_ and the _Gamow_ Mu could swear that the gray unit Kira battled against was piloted by Tim Blackstar ZAFT's Gray Raven. In the Moebius Zero Core when there still was one Mu and heard and seen combat data about the Gray Raven that was shown to him by Morgan Lestrange who was the chief nemesis of the Raven and from what Mu had seen this Tim Blackstar was not a man to be trifled with. However it was rumored that after Endymion the Blackstar team had to be taken off duty for a while but it was rumored that they did take part in the capture of the asteroid base Nova from the Republic of East Asia. However it was later confirmed by Alliance intelligence that the Blackstar team had returned to duty and had been given command of a _Nazca_ class destroyer called _Cold Storm_ which they where reputed to have been flying off of at Nova. _"It seems the Gray Raven keeps himself in good company the pilot of that red CGUE I fought outside of Artemis almost had me."_ Mu thought with resentment as he remembered how the red CGUE almost blew him into space dust. _"However if we have the Le Creuset team after us along with the Blackstar team we could be in serious trouble."_ Mu thought to himself but after this last thought Mu decided he was just making the situation worse by thinking about what he had to worry about so he decided to get some much needed sleep for he had a feeling it might be his only time in the near future to get some.

_Cold Storm _hanger, February 5, Cosmic Era 71

Tim stumbled into the hanger hoping to see Rodger and maybe discuss the rather embarrassing experience that had just happened to him. Unbeknownst to Tim however, Rodger had ventured up to the bridge on some errand and was now laughing uproariously at what he saw on the video monitor. Not seeing Rodger Tim began to head over to his newly christened YFX-200 CGUE DEEP Arms when a gruff voice called out to Tim "Yo Tim what's shaken?"

Tim turned to see Howard floating towards him "You wouldn't believe me if I told you Howard." Tim said with a loud audible sigh.

"Try me." Howard said with a mischievous grin. So Tim told Howard what happened and when he finished Howard looked like he was about to explode "So the little missy wooped your ass huh." Howard said as he like Rodger on the bridge laughed uproariously.

"It's not funny Howard it was an honest mistake and anyone could have made it." Tim said somewhat meekly trying to defend himself from Howard's laughter.

"Maybe but you have to admit on the inside you are a little pleased with what you saw aren't you Commander Blackstar." Howard said with a smirking grin.

"I see what your getting at Howard but Cindy and I are friends nothing more." Tim said defensively.

"What ever you say Tim but I believe your deluding yourself on that last part and I also believe Cindy is to no matter what you to say." Howard said with his smile growing wider.

"Howard Cindy and I are almost like siblings and despite what you may think we are nothing more than that." Tim said trying to prove he had no kind of romantic feelings for Cindy.

"_You to may not realize it yet but you do Tim and maybe the two of you will come out of denial some day." _Howard thought to himself serenely. "Anyway Tim how are you liken the improvements to your CGUE." Howard asked changing the subject.

Tim who was relieved by the change of subject spoke almost immediately "After looking at all the modifications and adjusting the os I'm quite pleased with it Howard."

"Well just remember when you take it out into battle return it to me in one piece." Howard said sternly.

"You got it Howard." Tim said with a smile as Captain Lewis's voice came over the intercom system.

"Commander Blackstar report to the bridge we have an urgent message from Commander Le Creuset."

"That'll be my cue to leave see you Howard." Tim said as he took off towards the bridge.

_Cold Storm _Bridge

Upon arriving at the bridge Tim saw Rau's face on a video monitor conversing with Captain Lewis.

"_Ah Commander Blackstar at last I have good news." _The masked Commander said somberly through the video link.

"Well commander Le Creuset speak on don't delay us from hearing this good news." Tim said with a smirk.

"Very well then. We have picked up a signal from the legged ship and have decided to pursue it for the time being the Gamow will continue the hunt for Ms. Clyne while we continue on words towards the legged ship." Rau said with a smile on his face.

"Sounds great commander you have mine and my ships full support." Tim said as he thought about the chance to engage the Strike once again.

"_Very good then Commander Blackstar Le Creuset out."_ And with that Rau's image faded from the monitor.

"Captain Lewis follow the _Vesailius_ and let me know when we have a visual on the legged ship I'm going to get some sleep." And with that Tim turned around and headed back towards his quarters.

_Archangel _Bridge, February 6, Cosmic Era 71

Captain Murrue Ramius sat in the captain's chair on the _Archangels_ Bridge. They hadn't seen combat for some time now but since discovering the cache in the ruins of Junius Seven at least they hadn't had to worry about supplies. Hopefully it will continue on this way until they could reach Ptolemaeus on the moon. However, knowing their luck this peace wouldn't last. And Murrue was about to be proven correct as Dolida Lolaha Chandra was observed his radar systems he saw something that caught his attention and almost made him jump up from his seat "Captain I've got excellent news!" Chandra cried out.

"Yes Petty Officer Chandra what is it." Murrue said snapping out of her reverie.

"Captain we have received a transmission from the 8th Fleets Advance Force." Chandra said with a growing smile.

"Are you serious?" Murrue asked the shock in her voice evident.

"Yes Captain we're saved." Chandra said as he and most of the bridge crew jumped up in relief and excitement.

"_Maybe things will work out."_ Murrue thought to herself as the ship now began to head towards the rendezvous point set by the Advance Force.

_Gilgamesh _Bridge, February 6, Cosmic Era 71

Captain Feral who had also received a signal from the advance was now relaying there instructions to his Commander "Captain we now have orders from Rear Admiral Lewis Halberton of the 8th fleet to meet up with the new _Archangel_ class ship and the advance force he has sent to meet them and escort them back to the 8th Fleet." Feral said as he read off the list of orders.

"Interesting the new _Archangel_ class ship very interesting." Morgan said while rubbing his chin. "Well Captain we can't very well refuse an order from the great Lewis Halberton proceed on Captain."

"Yes sir Commander." Feral replied as he begin to hand out orders so his commander's bidding could be carried out.

"_Besides if the new Archangel class ship is there then that's were Blackstar will be." _Morgan thought to himself as the_ Gilgameh _changed it's course and headed to the coordinates given to him by the advance force.

_Cold Storm_ Tim's quarters, February 6, Cosmic Era 71

As February the seventh drew closer and the _Vesailius _and_ Cold Storm_ were beginning to close in on the legged ship. Tim sat at his desk gazing out of his view port at the stars awaiting the call to battle stations to be given before he and his people would head out into combat against the legged ship. "It is as if the calm before the storm." Tim spoke aloud as the stars went by. "Soon Strike we will duel again and I will test my machines new capabilities out at last." Tim spoke as he stood up and a smile of unimaginable inhumanity welled up and being able to fight with the Blue cosmos controlled Earth Alliances symbol of hope and hopefully destroy it or capture it.

At the same time all over the ship different people were having different thoughts about the coming confrontation Rodger awaiting his chance for a fight with Mu La Flaga, Cindy wanting to redeem herself for the failure of her last encounter with the legged ship, and Captain Lewis awaiting a chance to engage the _Archangel_ in ship to ship combat. This next battle would truly be a storm the likes of which had never been seen in space not since Yachin, Endymion, or Nova.

Authors Notes:

Well that concludes chapter six for the next chapter I'm going to try and do the advance force battle along with the one before the _Archangel_ reaches the 8th fleet. Hope you guys liked this one and review me soon.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	7. An Endless Combat

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, and Shard Mitchells

Model Number: GAT-X000

Unit Type: prototype assault mobile suit

Code Name: Rustung

Manufacturer: Earth Alliance

Operators: Earth Alliance

First Deployment: February 17, CE 71

Accommodations: Pilot only in standard cockpit in torso

Dimensions: 17.4 meters

Weight: 85.1 metric tons

Construction: unknown

Power plant: enhanced ultracompact energy battery

Equipment and design features: Phase Shift Armor (blood red with black trim), sensors, hardwired Aile Striker Pack, Mirage Colloid

Fixed Armaments: "Igellstellung X" 75mm enhanced APSV CIWS x2

beam saber x2 (stored on hardwired Aile pack),

57mm high-energy beam rifle with 175mm grenade launcher

"Helios" mega cannon

"Serpent Striker" retractable heat rod (stored in buster shield)

buster shield

Optional fixed armaments: 57mm high-energy beam rifle with 175mm grenade launcher

Technical Notes and History: The GAT-X000 Rustung is a prototype mobile suit that combines several features of the original five GAT units. The Rustung resembles the Tallgeese III from Gundam Wing Endless Waltz but with the same torso and shoulders as the Strike. While the Rustung does posses some of the other GAT unit's weapons like the Duel's beam rifle and grenade launcher along with a hard wired Aile pack and the Blitz's Mirage Colloid it also has several other new technologies and features that make it different from the other GAT units. One example being the "Helios" mega cannon, which is based off the Strike's "Agni" hyper Impulse cannon the only difference being the mega cannon is strong enough to destroy a battleship in one shot. The Rustung's heat rod which was based off the Strike's and Blitz's rocket anchors and can coil, retract, and generate heat while it is also capable of giving off an electrical charge. The Rustungs Aile pack is also tuned for greater speed than the Aile Strikes and is also capable f sustained flight in the atmosphere. The Rustungs battery power has also been doubled from that of the original GAT units so it is capable of more operating time. The Rustung shoulders also have the Strikes hard points. The left shoulder's hard points hold onto the hardwired anti beam coated buster shield while the rights holds the hardwired mega cannon.

The Rustung was built and completed on Ptolemaeus lunar base around the same time as the five GAT units on Heliopolis.

And now on with the story!

Near 8th fleet advance force rendezvous point, February 7, CE 71

The _Cold Storm _and_ Vesailius _were right outside the legged ship's radar range and were waiting for the legged ship to get into position with the advance force before they began the attack. All mobile suits on both ships were on standby and were prepared to launch at any moment. Then when the legged ship had finally moved where they wanted it ZAFT began its attack.

Battlefield

"_At last I can finally use my new CGUE."_ Tim thought to himself as he sped off at speeds greater than that of a normal CGUE as he drew his laser sword ready6 to tear apart any enemy that got near him.

Meanwhile Athrun Zala pilot of the captured Aegis Gundam headed out of the _Vesailius _flanked by five GINNS "Kira I will convince you to come over to our side and if I can't I will have no choice but to shoot you down!" Athrun thought to himself as he converted to his mobile armor mode and began to harass the advance force ships with his "Scylla" multiphase cannon.

In another part of the battlefield Rodger was testing out his new beam rifle on some of the enemy Moebius units that had been launched from the advance forces ships. "To easy!" Rodger cried out as he blasted another mobile armor to smithereens. "At this rate we'll wipe out the entire advance force within minutes Rodger cried out as he activated his thrusters flew forward and sliced a Moebius in half with his newly drawn beam saber. "It doesn't even look like the legged ship has deployed it's mobile weapons either they must have gone brain dead since our last encounter." Rodger said as he activated his thrusters and flew off into the general direction of the legged ship hoping that his presence would draw out the adversary he sought Mu La Flaga.

Elsewhere Cindy was popping up all over the place with her Mirage Colloid slicing at enemies with her heavy sword in one of her GINNS hands and a beam saber in her other. "You bunch of weaklings Cindy called out as she began to spin her GINN in a barrel roll and fly forward through a cluster of mobile armors a vanishing pink cyclone of death. When the smoke finally cleared every Moebius that had been in the cluster had been sliced into pieces. "It's even easier beating you losers than it was before." Cindy giggled out as she received a transmission from Tim.

"Cindy the Aegis has just destroyed one of the Drake class ships and is proceeding on to the other one go and give him some support." Tim's voice iterated through the radio.

"You got it Raven Cindy out." Cindy said as she switched her frequency over to that of he Aegis pilots and flew towards where the transforming mobile suit was turning a _Drake _class ship into Swiss cheese.

Tim meanwhile was having fun testing out his modified mobile suit. "Lets try the cannons." Tim said sounding like a little boy in a candy shop as he fired the cannons and the two great beams blew away two Moebius units away apiece. Just then another of the outdated mobile armors tried to sneak up on the scarred CGUE firing it's gatling guns Tim however, powered up his powerful thrusters flew above the advancing unit and when it was directly below him came back down on it plunging his laser sword into the very middle of the unit causing it to explode on contact. "I love upgrades!" Tim almost shouted out as he flew by another Moebius and sliced it in half with his sword. "The only thing that could make this battle in better is if I had a few mobile suits to test my new upgraded CGUE on." Tim declared as he flew off to find some new opponents to fight.

Gilgamesh hangers, February 7, CE 71 

Morgan was in the cockpit of his Zero and was preparing to launch out into the battlefield to find his nemesis the Gray Raven. Morgan really could care less about the advance force but the _Archangel_ and the mobile suit it carried needed to protected in order to turn the war around against the genetic freaks of nature they were fighting.

"_Commander Morgan we've entered the battlefield and you are clear to launch."_ Captain Feral's husky voice boomed out over their radio link.

"Thank you Captain proceed with helping the _Archangel _in whatever it's doing." Morgan replied back to the portly captain.

"_Yes sir."_ Feral's voice spoke back over the link before Morgan changed the radio frequency to a neutral channel.

"This is the Violet Reaper launching!" Morgan cried out as he was pushed back into his seat by the G-forces as his Zero was hurled out into space followed by his ships remaining Moebius units.

Battlefield

Kira Yamato flew out into space in his Aile Strike Gundam after the loss of the second _Drake_ class ship Murrue decided it might be a good idea to have him and Mu launch. Kira began his sortie by slicing one of the GINNS from the _Vesailius_ in half with his beam saber and then blasted another with his rifle. Then Kira saw it the red mobile suit Aegis it was flying towards him one of its golden arm mounted sabers ignited _"Athrun…"_ Kira thought sadly as he flew forward to meet him their blades locking neither really wanting to fight the other.

In a different part of the battlefield Rodger had finally found his much sought after target the Hawk of Endymion "At last I've found you Mu La Flaga!" Rodger roared out a demonic grin on his face as he flew forward to engage the Hawk.

"Damn it's that red CGUE again!" Mu cursed aloud as he avoided the fiery red blade of Rodger's beam saber.

"Nice moves Hawk but try this on for size." Rodger said with a smirk as he fired all of his missiles except the ones in his shoulder armor at Mu."

Mu fired up his thrusters and dodged the first missile and then fired all of his other missiles each one of Mu's shots hitting a missile dead on "Not to bad if I do say so my self."

"Gotcha!" Rodger shrieked out appearing above Mu and while preparing to execute the same move Tim had done on the Moebius earlier "Now our finished La Flaga!"

Just as the saber was about to go through the Zero and destroy it Mu's thrusters flared to life and push him forward causing the beam saber to only severely damage the Zero's main propulsion system.

"Time to retreat." Mu sighed out as he used the thrusters on his gun barrel to propel him back to the _Archangel_.

"Damn you La Flaga another time then!" Rodger shouted out as he fired several beam shots at the retreating Zero.

Elsewhere Cindy was buzzing around alternating between pestering the legged ship, the mobile armors, and the _Nelson_ class. "To easy." Cindy muttered to herself as she blasted another mobile armor to ashes with her beam sniper rifle.

"Hey Cindy need some help?" Cindy heard a voice call out to her through the radio.

"Yeah Tim sure why not." Cindy said recognizing the Raven voice while also seeing his custom colored unit approaching hers.

"All right then I see the Strike is currently engaged with the Aegis but it looks like neither is gaining any headway." Tim mused while noting how the two machines were fighting each other.

"That's how they've been fighting since they started they must be real evenly6 matched or something." Cindy said throwing in her own two cents.

"Maybe you should stop worrying about them and start worrying about yourself Blackstar!" Tim heard a familiar voice yell out at him.

Tim turned just in time to see the violet colored Zero flying towards him firing all it's weapons at once "What are you doing here Morgan I thought you and your flunkies got beat enough last time." Tim taunted while dodging the shots.

"I don't know what our talking about Raven you're the one who got beat last time as a matter of fact I would've had you if your little friends hadn't shown up." Morgan said with a sneer.

"Well in case you haven't noticed Lestrange my suit got an upgrade so now I can whoop your ass twice as hard." Tim retorted firing his cannons while also setting his computer to play _Bat Country_ by _Avenged Sevenfold_.

Morgan maneuvered his Zero so that it avoided the avoided the shots and opened a public channel with Captain Feral "Captain Feral how are things going on your end?"

"_Fair enough Commander but I don't think we can keep this up much longer." _Ferals husky voice said back over the radio.

"Wait Feral's the bastard in charge of your ship Reaper well I truly wasn't expecting that." Tim shouted over the public channel.

"_Indeed I am Tim Blackstar you space monster I must say I was rather unpleased to hear that you survived Endymion." _Feral said lashing out verbally at Tim.

"I haven't forgotten what you did you bastard you activated the Cyclops bomb at Endymion and killed my team mates Lance, Kim, and Edward!" Tim roared back out at one of the people he hated most in the world.

"_Well there's nothing you can do about it now is there Blackstar."_ The husky voice replied.

"Oh quite the contrary you bastard there is something I can do." Tim said icily as in his minds eye a slate gray seed burst and he flew off at top speed towards were the _Gilgamesh_ was intent on destroying Captain Feral.

"Oh no you don't Blackstar!" Morgan roared out voice seething with anger because he had been so easily forgotten.

"Hold on big man to get to Tim you'll have to get through me." Cindy said barring the violet colored Zero's path with her pink GINN.

"Fine then women let's go!" Morgan challenged as he and Cindy began to fight.

Tim was flying at the _Gilgamesh _as fast as his machine would go Tim was literally almost pushing the CGUES thrusters past their limits. _"I'm gonna bury that bastard!"_ Tim was thinking to himself as he drew his laser sword and prepared for what he hoped will kill Feral.

_Gilgamesh_ Bridge

Captain Feral was really beginning to sweat it out. He and the bridge crew could see the gray CGUE approaching and Feral knew that at the moment it's pilot was hell bent on killing him. So Feral did the best thing he could think of he called several Moebius units up to defend the ship and prepared for the Raven to arrive.

Battlefield near _Gilgamesh_

"_Feral is actually going to try and save himself with five Moebius units pathetic."_ Tim mused to himself as he fired his cannons and annihilated three of the five mobile armors and then finally dispatching the final two with several swings of his laser sword. "Now Captain Feral prepare for your demise." Tim ordered as he positioned his CGUE in such a fashion so that its sword could destroy the Gilgamesh's bridge.

On the bridge of the Gilgamesh Captain Feral could be heard saying, "May this sacrifice not be in vain and may it further serve to make our dream of a blue and pure world a reality."

"Die you Blue Cosmos bastard!" Tim roared out as his sword went straight through the bridge causing it to explode killing everyone on it. When the smoke cleared the CGUE was on the wreckage of the Gilgamesh and Tim could be heard breathing out slowly "that was for Lance, Kim, Edward and all the other people you killed at Endymion you bastard."

_Nelson_ class _Montgomery_, hanger

Inside the hanger of the _Montgomery _a gray mobile suit stood motionless as the pilot inside the cockpit was growing impatient and was ready to go out their and sortie with his new suit. Finally the image of Captain Koopman appeared on one of his monitors and told him he had permission to launch. "Finally that old man should have sent me out there earlier we might have a lot less of those useless mobile armor pilots dieing out there." The man said to himself with a grim smile as his suit approached the launch catapult. "This is Shard Mitchells, Rustung launching!" And with that the mobile suit was hurled out into space and once out there it activated it's phase shift armor causing the suit to turn blood red with black trim and then flew towards the battle zone the pilot mumbling to himself with a demonic smile on his face "At last Hell's Hound hunts again."

Battlefield

Ever since Mu La Flaga had retreated Rodger had been flying around locked in combat with Moebius units. It was just after Rodger bisected another mobile armor with one of his beam sabers that he suddenly saw a red object flying towards at incredible speeds.

"What the hell." Rodger said as he directed his undivided attention towards the approaching mobile suit.

"Hell is exactly right my friend but you can call me Shard." A cold dark voice said over the radio frequency while the approaching mobile suit began to arm some kind of cannon on its right arm.

"I don't know what that thing is but I'm not going to let it fire that cannon!" Rodger declared as he fired his rail gun, beam rifle, and shoulder missiles all at once at the approaching mobile suit however the mobile suit vanished just as the barrage was about to hit it.

"Nice try." A cold voice to Rodgers left said the made chills run down Rodger's spine.

"Oh shit!" Rodger cried out as he looked over to his left and saw the red and black suit with its cannon fully charged.

"Congratulations you have the honor of being my first target." The frigid voice of Shard Mitchells said as he pulled his fully charged mega cannons trigger and watched the torrent of green energy that was released from the cannon fly out at the CGUE creating a blinding flash of light. However, once the light dissipated it revealed Rodger's CGUE had both its legs incinerated along with its entire right arm up to the elbow and the entire left hand but the CGUES cockpit was okay. "Well I guess my aim was a little off." Shard said his voice as cold as a winter wind.

"Hold it right there asshole!" Tim roared out as him and his CGUE came onto the scene Tim's CGUE firing it's cannons at the enemy mobile suit the whole time however the mobile suit dodged all of the blasts.

It was at that moment however, that several shots from the _Cold Storm_ and the _Vesailius_ finally caused the Montgomery to explode.

"Oh well I guess that means I'm with the _Archangel _now." Shard said not seeming to mind his old ship had just been blown up.

But before anything else could happen something else happened that stopped all confrontations on the battlefield.

"_This is Ensign Natarle Badgiruel of the Earth Alliance Assault carrier Archangel on board this ship we currently have the daughter of PLANT Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne Miss Lacus Clyne aboard this ship. We found her adrift life pod and brought her aboard for humanitarian reasons, however if ZAFT continues to attack us we will consider it an abandonment of your duty to protect Miss Clyne and we will not be able to guarantee her safety." _Natarle said over the radio.

"What monsters you are making a hostage out of a civilian refugee!" Athrun cried out outraged.

"Athrun wait…" Kira said slightly dumbfounded.

"No Kira but You can rest assured that I will save Lacus." Athrun said coldly before heading back to the _Vesailius_ as Kira headed back to the _Archangel_.

"I'll see you next fight." Shard said to Tim before flying off towards the _Archangel _whileTim picked up Rodgers damaged suit and the two flew back to the_ Cold Storm. _Cindywas also heading back to the_ Cold Storm _after a very tiring duel with Morgan who had been damaged more than her but still had put up a good fight. Morgan was now flying towards the _Archangel _thinking to himself _"Things certainly have gotten interesting."_

Finally after several moments space was once again as quite as it had been before the battle had started.

Authors Notes:

Well sorry to the readers it took so long to update. School has been real hectic lately and I haven't had that much time to write and I didn't write as much as I wanted to but at least I gave you guys something. Anyway review the chapter soon.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	8. A Glimpse Of The Past

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, and Shard Mitchells

_Cold Storm_, February 7, CE 71

Upon arriving in the _Cold Storm's_ hanger Tim immediately disembarked from his unit and floated over to where he had laid Rodger's badly damaged CGUE. When Tim arrived down at the wrecked suit Howard and his people were already preparing to blow the hatch after they had not been able to receive a sign from Rodger on the inside. "Is there anything I can do to help Howard?" Tim asked the grizzled mechanic concern in his voice.

"Just stand back for a moment fly boy then you and your girl can take Rodger to the infirmary." Howard said as he and his team wired a large enough amount of explosives to the custom CGUES well armored hatch to blow it off.

Tim was angered slightly by the first statement for he hated being called fly boy but then thought about the second part and said aloud slightly confused "My girl?"

"He was talking about me idiot." Cindy agitatedly said as she approached Tim from behind.

"What are you acting so bitchy about?" Tim asked observing the pink haired girls agitation.

"Morgan's Zero I damaged it but I couldn't destroy it and the asshole was mocking me the whole time we were fighting.

"Sounds like Morgan but don't lose to much sleep over it despite the fact Morgan is an asshole he is a pretty good pilot." Tim calmly said as the hatch was finally blown off Rodger's CGUE.

"All right boys get him out!" Howard barked out to two of his engineers and within moments the two engineers remerged carrying Rodger one holding his legs and the other holding his arms as they laid him out on the hanger floor.

Cindy and Tim then approached and each one grabbed one of Rodgers arms and then both wrapped the arm around their shoulders to evenly distribute the weight "Thanks Howard." They both said together as they headed out of the hanger and up towards the infirmary.

_Archangel _February 7, CE 71

Murrue Ramius had entered the _Archangel's _hanger shortly after the battle ended and she had scolded Natarle for she was aware two allied units had joined up with the ship and she wanted to meet the pilots. She saw most of the mechanics and Mu La Flaga still in his flight suit with his helmet still on standing close to two people she hadn't seen before who could only be the pilots of the violet Zero and the new mobile suit. "Greetings I am Lt. Murrue Ramius the commanding officer of this ship and you are?" Murrue asked addressing the two strangers.

One of the pilots who was wearing a violet and black flight suit and had light purple hair in the same style as Nicol's replied first "Commander Morgan Lestrange formerly of the battleship _Gilgamesh _I also go by the alias Violet Reaper." Morgan said curtly as he gave a salute to Murrue.

Then the second who was wearing an Earth Forces flight suit that was primarily red and secondarily black and had spiky blood red hair replied next with a voice colder than ice "Special Operations Commander Shard Mitchells pilot of the GAT-X000 Rustung I also go by the alias Hell's Hound."

Murrue did not recognize their names but still replied to their responses "A pleasure to have you both aboard we could sure use the help."

It was then that Kira exited the Strike and stormed off he seemed rather displeased so Mu took off after him as the mechanics dispersed beginning to start repairs on the two Zero's and the Strike.

"Who were they?" Morgan inquired from Murrue referring to Mu and Kira who had both exited the hanger.

"The one in the standard flight suit was Kira Yamato pilot of the GAT-X105 Strike and the one in the custom flight suit was Mu LA Flaga the Hawk of Endymion." Murrue sited off.

"Mu La Flaga well what a surprise." The cold voice of Shard said nonchalantly obviously less interested than he sounded.

"_A surprise indeed I will have to speak to Mu later." _ Taking his mind out of his thoughts Morgan decided to change the subject "So Lt. Ramius who is Kira Yamato? I can't say I can recall him."

Murrue then quickly explained what had happened to the _Archangel _and its crew and explained of Kira's amazing coordinator abilities and how hard he had fought so far.

"So Yamato is a coordinator how very interesting, but then again that would make perfect sense considering how sucky the original operating systems were and having a coordinator on hand willing to pilot it for our side it must have been a huge stroke of luck." Shard stated as he gazed up at the Strike.

"Indeed so." Morgan mumbled out not really thrilled a coordinator was piloting one of the Earth Forces secret weapons.

"But Commander Mitchells surely we must have developed a natural use operating system by now, or are you a coordinator like Kira?" Murrue asked Shard as she gazed into his eyes, which looked like, frozen flame.

"We haven't developed one and no I am not but I'm using a coordinator operating system and before you ask how that's possible its classified." Mitchells icily spoke.

"Okay then." Murrue said a little wierded out by how cold and precise the pilot called Shard seemed "Perhaps I should show you to two to your quarters."

"That sounds great lead on Captain." Morgan cheerfully said anxious to lie down and get some rest.

And with that Murrue led both pilots to their new quarters as the _Archangel_ flew onwards through space.

Cold Storm infirmary 

Rodger was now lying unconscious in one of the infirmary beds while Tim and Cindy waited on the far side of the room for the doctor to finish making his diagnosis.

"I hate not being able to do anything and just only being able to stand here." Tim said looking frustrated.

"I know what you mean." Cindy said with an equally frustrated look.

"But that thing that attacked him was a mobile suit not a mobile armor and from what I could tell was seriously well armed." Tim said while recalling how he had seen the suit fire it's mega cannon at Rodger's CGUE

"That suit and Morgan's Zero are also on the _Archangel _now so now they have two mobile suits and two mobile armors which might make it more of a challenge to take the ship down." Cindy added.

It was then that the doctor interrupted the conversation "Mr. Simmons has a very high fever and may remain unconscious for a few days but he should make a full recovery."

"That's great besides his mobile suit is out of commission anyway and he wouldn't be able to fight even if he was conscious and in any condition to fight." Tim happily said glad to know his friend would be okay.

"However Mr. Simmons will require plenty of rest so I am going to have to close out this part of the infirmary for the time being if that's okay with you to.

"Sure no problem." Cindy said as she and Tim left the infirmary.

As soon as they left the infirmary Tim and Cindy said that they would see each other later and then proceeded off to their own quarters.

Tim's quarters

Upon arriving in his quarters Tim switched back into his top gun uniform and sat in his desk chair looking out his rooms view port window. Tim saw stars pass by and over to the left side of the ship he saw the _Vesalius_ and Tim began to think of his family and Blair. The last time he had seen them alive was when they were preparing to depart on a shuttle at the Kaguya mass driver. He could almost remember every thing, as it was that day.

It was a warm, bright, sunny day in the Orb Union and at the Kaguya mass driver five people stood in front of a shuttle.

"_We'll see you in a few days then son?" A tall black haired man with a black beard and gray eyes asked a slightly younger Tim._

"_Yeah dad as soon as I finish the rest of my work up at Morgenroete I will head straight up to Copernicus." Tim replied._

"_Knowing Tim he'll probably finish early head up to Copernicus without telling us and right when we're least expecting it jump out and scare the living day lights out of us." Tim's sister Katherine said with a grin while scratching the same jet-black hair she shared with her father, mother, and brother._

"_Now Katherine the last time he did something like that it was just you who had the living daylights scared out of you Tim has never done anything like that to the rest of us." The melodic voice of Lisa Lionheart said to her daughter._

"_Yeah whatever but I wouldn't put it past him to try it again and maybe on all of us this time." Katherine mumbled out._

"_Well son in any case we love you and will see you soon." Tim's father Kevin said with a smile as his wife and daughter followed suit entering the shuttle and leaving Tim and Blair on the platform alone._

_It was the crimson haired Blair who broke the silence "So you will be up at Copernicus in a few days want you Tim?"_

"_You know I can't leave you alone for to long babe." Tim replied with a smile._

"_That's what you always say Tim." Blair shot back with a grin._

"_Well have I ever fallen through on it?"_

"_No I suppose not, but by the way I have a present for you." Blair said as she walked closer to Tim. _

"_Really what's the occasion?" Tim asked while raking his mind trying to think of what kind of occasion would merit him receiving a present._

"_Today is our three year anniversary we have been going out for three years now and I got you a little present." The red- eyed coordinator girl replied while digging into the left pocket of her jeans until she finally pulled out a small gray pendant on a silver chain._

_Tim took it almost reverently from Blair's hands and slid it over his head and around his neck._

"_Well do you like it?" Blair questioned._

"_Of course I do you got it for me." Tim said as he looked at the pendant, which was shaped to resemble and look like a raven, and had the letters T and B interlocked together on the back._

"_I love you Tim Lionheart." Blair said wrapping her arms around Tim's back._

"_I love you to Blair Summers." Tim said as he pulled Blair close to him and locked his lips with hers in a long passionate kiss._

_Until finally they broke apart and Blair finally said "So I'll see you later Raven."_

"_I hope its soon then." Tim replied._

"_It will be." Blair said knowingly as she boarded the shuttle._

_Not to long after the shuttle shot past Tim and up into space leaving Tim alone on the mass driver platform._

It was then that the slide show of past memories stopped and Tim felt inside his top gun uniform and grasped the very same pendant that Blair had given to him that day. One of the important reasons Tim liked the alias Gray Raven was because of this very same pendant that helped him keep alive one of his most important memories. _"Don't worry Blair I will avenge you, mom, dad, and Katherine." _Tim sadly thought as a small tear rolled down his left cheek but no more than that one.

_Archangel_ Kira Yamato's room, February 8, CE 71

Kira sat miserably on his bunk reflecting over the events of the past few hours. Kira had been infuriated by the actions Natarle had taken with Lacus a few hours earlier and it still burned him up on the inside just thinking about it. Lacus had been taken onboard the Archangel as a civilian refugee and was not meant to be used as a hostage and from Kira's point of view it seemed like Natarle had taken advantage of Lacus'es position with the PLANTS to shield themselves, which Kira deemed morally, wrong. _"This isn't right."_ Kira thought a fire igniting in his eyes _"I'm going to do something about this!"_ And with that Kira left the room and headed off to Lacus'es quarters.

_Cold Storm_ Bridge

Shortly after exiting his reverie Tim had gone up to the bridge to check up on the current situation with Captain Lewis.

"Ah Tim what a pleasure to see you." Lewis greeted when he saw Tim had entered the bridge.

"Good to see you to Lewis but anyway how is the current situation going."

"Well sir we're at a stalemate we can't attack them but they're also not willing to openly engage us.

"Fantastic." Tim sarcastically muttered, "As long as they've got Ms. Lacus there isn't a damn thing we can do."

It was at that particular moment that Tim saw something approaching on radar from the legged ship.

"Lewis what is that?" Tim asked peering down at the monitors.

"Oh that's the video file we saved of Cindy whooping your ass." Lewis stated without thinking while also thinking Tim was talking about a different monitor.

"No not that the thing coming up on that monitor from the legged…" Tim suddenly trailed off "What do you mean the video file of Cindy whooping my ass?" Tim shot back angrily after he had caught what Lewis had accidentally said.

"Nothing Tim. Now what was it you were saying about something approaching from the legged ship?"

"We will discuss this later Lewis, and I was talking about that!" Tim angrily gestured out one of the bridge view ports at the plainly visible Strike in its Aile configuration.

"Prepare to open fire on the enemy mobile suit!" Lewis ordered quickly.

It was at that moment a voice came over the radio and spoke out to both ships _"This is the pilot of the GAT-X105 Strike I have in the cockpit with me Ms. Lacus Clyne. I have come to return her and will only do so if both ships cut their engines, and if I am only met by the pilot of the Aegis to receive her. _

"Belay that last order!" Lewis bellowed out canceling out his previous command.

"Is the pilot so naïve as to believe that we want try an offensive once we have Ms. Clyne?" Tim asked Lewis.

"Apparently." Lewis said looking out at the Strike.

"Lewis disengage the engines and let me know when the Aegis has Ms. Lacus I'll be in my mobile suit so send the call to its com-frequency." Tim flatly stated handing out Lewis's orders as he walked off the bridge and down to the hanger.

_Cold Storm_ hanger

Tim arrived a few moments later and quickly entered the cockpit of his CGUE. Tim quickly booted up his systems and cut on the radio waiting for Lewis to call down and tell him to launch. Tim was still clad in his top gun uniform not wanting to waist the time of having to switch into his flight suit and having to take time away from preparing to launch his unit could cause him to miss this opportunity to destroy the Strike.

Tim didn't have to wait long however for a few moments later Lewis's voice quickly came over the com-link "Tim launch! Now's our chance!"

Tim didn't have to be told twice as he made his CGUE practically fly out of the catapult by its self _"Now Strike your naivety shall be your undoing!"_ Tim thought to himself.

Space out side of _Vesalius_ and _Cold Storm _

The Strike and Aegis were just preparing to separate and return to their two separate mother ships when Kira saw one suit launch from each of the _Nazcas_.

"Commander Le Creuset!" Athrun shouted out surprised as he recognized his commander's unit heading towards them at top speeds.

"Athrun get Ms. Clyne back to the ship." Le Creuset ordered as he fired several shots from his assault rifle at the Strike, which did no harm as the shots bounced off the PSA.

"Rau need some backup?" Tim asked the masked commander while firing several shots from his cannon at the Strike.

"That would be much appreciated Gray Raven." Rau said as he fired a few more bursts from his rifle.

"Not so fast Rau!" Mu La Flaga yelled firing several shots at Rau as he arrived on the scene with his Zero.

It was then Lacus Clyne chose to intervene as she picked up and began to speak into Athrun's radio "Commander Rau Le Creuset and the pilot of the gray mobile suit are you two trying to turn this place into a battlefield? And in front of a member of the national memorial committee, I am hereby overriding your authority and ordering you to retreat to your ships.

Inside the cockpit of his CGUE Rau was thinking to himself _"What a troublesome girl."_ Before replying, "Yes mam'm." Before reversing thrust and heading back to the _Vesalius _Athrun following behind him in the Aegis.

Tim however, was having slightly different thoughts as he flew back to the _Cold Storm _"She didn't even know who I was." Tim said aloud extremely mortified.

After the three ZAFT suits had left Mu slowly said to Kira "That was weird, but lets get back to the Archangel." And with that the two units returned to the Archangel, which was waiting for them as the two units entered its hanger now, safe from any ZAFT attacks for the moment.

Authors Notes: Well that'll do it for chapter eight hope you guys enjoy it and I hope you all have a happy holiday. And by the way please review me soon or I'll think you guys don't like me.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	9. Dogs Of War

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, and Shard Mitchells

_Cold Storm _Bridge, February 11, CE 71

It had been three days since Lacus Clyne had been returned to ZAFT and since then the _Vesalius_ had gone back to the PLANTS to drop off Lacus and the Cold Storm had linked back up with the _Gamow_. At the moment Tim 'Gray Raven' Blackstar along with Captain Lewis was having a video conference with Captain Zellman, Yzak, Dearka, and Nicol about if they should proceed with an offensive against the legged ship. Rodger was conscious but couldn't leave the infirmary because frankly the doctor wouldn't let him, and Cindy was in the hanger doing maintenance on her GINN mainly because she didn't want to be anywhere near Yzak even if it was just by video.

It was Yzak that started the conference by addressing Tim "I recommend going in with a direct assault on the legged ship Commander Blackstar we have the _Gamow's_ three GAT units and your mobile suits are equipped with beam weaponry so now I think would be our best chance to destroy the legged ship." Yzak stated while finishing with a smirk.

Before Tim could reply it was Lewis who interjected "However at our current speed by the time we were in position to attack the legged ship we would only have ten minutes to do so before the 8th fleet became a factor."

"Good point Lewis however, if we don't take this opportunity then we will allow the legged ship to link up with the 8th fleet and that would decrease our chances of that ship exponentially." Tim said responding to Lewis's comment.

"I think ten minutes would be plenty of time to take out the legged ship personally." Dearka." Replied while crossing his arms.

"We will have to attack quickly though and not dawdle this may be our last chance to stop the legged ship before it is to deep in Earth Alliance territory." Nicol chimed in.

"A valid point Nicol." Zellman said with a look on his face that gave away the fact that he was undecided about the matter.

"Well then I guess that's decided we'll all see you on the battlefield Commander." The smirking face of Yzak said as his along with Dearka, and Nicol's faces disappeared from the view screens.

Zellman just nodded to Tim and Lewis before his image disappeared and the final part of the screen went blank.

Lewis send the ship into level one battle stations and call down to the bridge and tell Cindy to attach some of the high speed leg boosters to her GINN and launch out under cloak. If we can get her out onto the battlefield ahead of us she can find a good sniping position." Tim stated drumming out orders to Lewis.

"Yes sir." But by the time Lewis replied Tim had exited the bridge and was on his way down to the hanger.

_Cold Storm_ hanger

Cindy was sitting inside her GINNS cockpit when she saw Howard's head appeared through the opening in the cockpit "Hey Howard what's up?"

"Well missy we're going to level one battle stations and your boyfriend wants you to fly out ahead of us." Howard replied in his gruff voice.

"By boyfriend if you mean Tim he's not but okay how far out does he want me to go?" Cindy said slightly agitated at Howard's phrasing of Tim being her boyfriend when they were just friends.

"He's ordered for your GINN to be equipped with the leg boosters and for you to fly out to the legged ship under cloak and find a good sniping spot.

"All righty then Howard start equipping the leg boosters to my GINN once I move it to the catapult.

"You got it missy." Howard replied as Cindy closed her cockpit door and moved her GINN up to the catapult so it could be equipped with the boosters.

"All right boys let's get the little lady fixed up." Howard bellowed out as his mechanics began to use several machines to remove Cindy's leg missile launchers and replace them with the boosters."

After a minute and thirty seconds of waiting Cindy finally heard Howard's come over the GINNS radio "All right missy your ready to go."

"Thanks Howard." Cindy replied before switching frequencies "Bridge this is Cindy Rollins in the GINN launching!" Cindy roared out as her GINN was hurled out into space. As soon as Cindy put some distance between herself and the bridge she activated her boosters and cried out "All right you Earth Alliance bastards because I'm coming for yah!" And with that Cindy flew off into the void of space.

_Cold Storm_ corridor near infirmary en route to hanger

Tim was on his way to the hanger and came to the junction were he had to walk down the hall were the infirmary was. Tim didn't have time to stop in and tell Rodger what was going on but he was sure that Rodger could probably guess at it. So Tim continued to walk down the hall towards the hanger.

When he was almost at the point where the hall curved he heard a voice from behind him call out to him "Tim get that bastard that shot me will yah."

Tim turned to see Rodger standing in the hall in a white t-shirt, light blue shorts, and an array of bandages on his head and smiled before replying, "You know I wouldn't let a friend go un-avenged."

"Thanks Tim." Rodger said returning Tim's smile with one of his own before returning to the infirmary.

Tim then turned and took off towards the hanger his flight gear in the cockpit of his CGUE Tim knew they wouldn't have long and he wanted to make sure that he was ready to go before they reached the legged ship.

Archangel Mu's quarters

"It's been a long time Mu La Flaga far to long." Morgan said starting the conversation.

"It has Morgan and from what I saw in the last sortie your skills are as sharp as ever." the Hawk replied.

"I try to keep my skills sharp Mu and believe me I've had plenty of practice lately." Morgan said while scratching the back of his head.

"So what have you done since Endymion Morgan? After that battle you kind of disappeared after awhile and I hadn't heard any news about you so I kind of thought you were dead." Mu said in his usual jovial demeanor.

"Well Mu after Endymion they put me in charge of a _Nelson _class ship and fought in a few small skirmishes but nothing major until recently when I reencountered the Gray Raven, but you I heard rumors about the EA developing some of their own mobile suits and a new warship and you were involved with escorting and pilot training… I guess this confirms it." Morgan stated giving out a testimony of his career after Endymion.

"Yeah well I did have a little something to do with all that as you said." Mu said grinning as he ran a hand back through his blonde hair.

It was then that Murrue's voice rang out over the intercom and said the ship was going into battle stations and that two enemy ships were approaching.

"We'll have to continue later Mu." Morgan said starting for the door.

"So it would seem Morgan replied as the two took off towards the hanger."

_Archangel_ hanger

Inside the cockpit of the Rustung Shard was already bringing the mobile suit to life activating its battery and other operational systems. _"Now that I have a feel for the_ _Rustung I'll tear through ZAFT_." Shard thought to himself._ "I may even get the chance to finish off that CGUE."_ It was then that the Rustung approached the catapult and Shard contacted the bridge "This is Shard Mitchells, Hell's Hound launching!" And with that the red and black suit was hurled out into space.

Soon after Shard had launched the strike came to life as Kira activated it and moved it to the catapult "Kira Yamato Launching!" He cried out as the Strike flew out of the catapult and out onto the soon to be battlefield.

Soon after Mu and Morgan each entered the hanger and headed to their respective Zeros and proceeded to separate launch catapults.

"You ready to go Mu?" Morgan called out to his former Moebius Zero Core member through the radio.

"You bet lets go!" Mu shouted back through his end.

"Bridge this is the Violet Reaper launching!" Morgan yelled out as his Zero through the catapult.

"Bridge this is Mu La Flaga heading out!" Mu called out to the bridge as his Zero shot out of the catapult leaving the Archangel's hanger empty.

Battlefield

"Don't worry Rodger I'll get that weird ass mobile suit for you." Tim was thinking to himself as his CGUE cruised toward the legged ship followed by the Duel, Blitz, and Buster.

"Hey Blackstar where's your girlfriend, Rollins isn't she supposed to be out here." Yzak's voice said through Tim's radio a sneer definitely detectable in it.

"She's already out here Yzak under cloak so don't worry about it and by the way she s not my girlfriend." Tim said back to Yzak a slight trace of agitation in his voice before switching over to Nicol's channel "You ready to take them down Nicol?"

"You bet Raven I'm going directly for the legged ship." Nicol replied enthusiastically as the Blitz suddenly vanished.

It was at that moment a tremendous blast of green energy cut through space towards the three remaining mobile suits "Lookout guys!" Dearka roared out causing the trio to dodge the blast at the last moment.

"Missed again." A chilling voice sighed out over the radios.

"That voice… it's the bastard that nearly killed Rodger!" Tim now in an outrage cried out as his CGUE drew its laser sword and shot off towards the Rustung _Torn_ by Creed playing from his music file.

"Foolish letting his emotions control him like that." Yzak said with a smirk to Dearka as Tim and Shard began to clash.

"Listen to the pot calling the kettle black." Dearka smoothly said his voice laden with sarcasm.

"Shut it Dearka." Yzak muttered out as the Strike and the two Zero's came into view. "Dearka you get the mobile armors I'll handle the Strike" Yzak shouted as he flew off to meet Kira.

"You got it." Dearka replied as he fired off some shots from his beam rifle and gun launcher at the oncoming mobile armors.

Meanwhile Tim and Shard were at a stalemate laser sword against saber.

"What's your name?" Tim questioned the pilot of the Rustung.

"Shard Mitchell's but I also go by Hell's Hound. So what is your name?" The icy voice of Shard asked.

"Tim Blackstar but I also go by Gray Raven." Tim proudly stated.

"Ah I've heard of you your name will look good on my kill roster, but could you hold on for a minute some friends of mine need a bit of help." The Hounded said voice razor sharp as his mobile suit suddenly disappeared leaving Tim alone and confused.

"Now where did that asshole go?"

At that moment Nicol was currently flying around the _Archangel _cloaked while firing off shots from its beam rifle at the legged ship the crew of which had know idea where he was "Today's the day this ship is destroyed and our fallen comrades are avenged." Nicol confidently stated as he fired off another shot at the ship.

On the _Archangel's_ Bridge Natarle Badgiruel had come up with a solution to their problem.

"Set "Igelstellungs" to point defense and use the Blitz's point of firing to come up with a firing solution!" Natarle barked out from her position in the _Archangel's _CIC.

Outside the ship Nicol saw the incoming barrage and new that he couldn't dodge it and if he didn't reactivate his PS armor by decloaking he would be ripped to shreds. Just as the Blitz was about to be torn to pieces it's PS armor reactivated deflected all the shots as Nicol mumbled out "This unit used to be yours of course you know it's weaknesses." While going back to the drawing board to come up with a new plan of attack.

Elsewhere on the battlefield Yzak and Kira exchanged blows with their blades of frozen fire either parrying the blows with their sabers or taking them on their shields.

"This is taking longer than I thought." Yzak said agitatedly "So let' try this!" He cried out deactivating his beam saber temporarily to fire its grenade.

"Nice try Duel." Kira said as the Strike fired its head mounted Vulcan's taking out the grenade before it could even get close but at the same time he created a temporary screen so he was un able to see Yzak.

"You fell into my trap!" Yzak victoriously cried out as the Duel emerged through the explosion redrawn beam saber in hand and held forward like a jousters lance.

"Not good, but I can't lose!" Kira shouted out as he held his shield in front of him and flew forward taking the Duel's saber thrust on the shield deflecting it and then elbowing the Duel's cockpit knocking it away. _"Only a few more minutes." _Kira thought with relief as the Duel recovered and prepared to renew its assault.

Dearka needless to say was having a ball. He had all ready destroyed Mu's linear gun and one of his gun barrels while also having destroyed two of Morgan's gun barrels. "To easy." Dearka said with a hint of overconfidence in his voice as he fired off a few more rounds at the two Zeros.

"Morgan we've got to do something." Mu said while simultaneously dodging a beam rifle blast.

"I know, but none of our weapons even affect this thing." Morgan replied to his wing mate.

"Plus he's got us pinned to." Mu stated adding to the list of problems he and Morgan were all ready having with the Buster.

Dearka then decided it was time to end the fight "It's been fun you guys but its time for you to go." Dearka said grimacing while his missile pods opened up and his rifle and gun launcher armed.

"I don't think so." The menacing voice of Shard said as the Rustung materialized behind the Buster "Now take this." Shard said as the Rustung lifted its beam rifle and fired its grenade into the Busters back knocking it forward in the ensuing explosion.

"You asshole! Take this!" A now enraged Dearka roared out firing his entire complement of missiles and at the same time combining his beam rifle and gun launcher into their hyper impulse sniper rifle configuration and firing a blast from it as well.

"Pathetic." Shard said the word almost as if it pained him as he flew forward and destroyed all the missiles with his APSV head mounted Vulcan's while knocking the hyper impulse beam aside as if it was nothing, and he finished by ensnaring the Buster with his heat rod and activating it's electrical feature shocking Dearka so the Buster was immobile while drawing one of the Rustung's beam sabers and severing the Buster's guns and arms in one clean stroke. "And you're a ZAFT top gun their standards must not be very high." Shard said adding insult to injury.

"That's enough!" An angry voice roared out as energy beam flew forward and severed Shards heat rod stopping Dearka's electric chair experience while simultaneously releasing him. Cindy's GINN then appeared not to far away brandishing its beam sniper rifle "You okay Buster?" Cindy asked looking at the weaponless Buster.

"Yeah but I'm gonna have to return to the ship." Dearka managed to stutter out obviously in intense pain.

"No way that's happening." Shard coldly said as he prepared to bring his weapon down on the defenseless Buster, which was still not moving.

"Yes it is." Tim said menacingly as he appeared between the Rustung and Buster and blocked he slash with his own sword. "Get moving Dearka that's an order." Tim said with a smile.

"You got it Blackstar." Dearka said as he took off in the damaged Buster back towards the _Gamow_.

"Raven!" Morgan called out "Now your mine!"

"Hold on their Morgan me and you have a score to settle!" Cindy roared out anticipation in her voice as she knocked Morgan off to the side and then flew after him while shouting back to Tim "Hit that bastard one time for me Tim."

"You got it Cindy." Tim called back.

"Looks like everyone has a dance partner but me." Mu said feeling left out. "I guess I'll go help Morgan." He said sounding slightly depressed as he took off after Cindy and Morgan.

"Now it's just you and me Shard." Tim said a grin appearing on his face.

"So it would seem!" Shard replied in his icy voice as he flew forward and met Tim sword against sword bloodlust in his red eyes.

"You're pretty good Shard but I'm better." Tim said as he managed to knock Shard back and then fire his cannons the blasts of which Shard dodged.

"To easy." Shard replied as he drew and fired several shots from his beam rifle at Tim.

Tim who knocked all the blasts aside with his sword then fired his cannons once more, which was answered by Shard suddenly vanishing from sight.

"Oh Shit." Tim said honestly not knowing what to do.

It was then that Tim was grabbed from behind both of his arms being held so he could not use his sword and his cannons being unable to fire behind him completely immobilizing him.

"Tell me Tim Blackstar have you ever thought of what you, your friends, and all your ZAFT allies are considered as?" Shard asked as his Rustung materialized back into existence.

"No what would that be."

"You are all dogs of war Tim Blackstar and not just you and the ZAFT but the soldiers of the Earth Alliance as well all of you and them are dogs that wait for their superiors orders and then carry them out without question." Shard replied his cold voice chilling Tim to the bone.

"Well Shard don't you fall into that category as well what makes you so special." Tim asked wanting to here Shards response to this after that little dogs of war speech.

"I make my own rules and follow my own orders Tim Blackstar I have my own agenda and I only use the Earth Alliance because it is convenient."

It was at that moment that Tim broke free and whirled around to face his opponent saying "Well Shard that's the same case with me I only use ZAFT because it is convenient and like you I have my own agenda now lets finish this." Tim said as his CGUE charged forward.

"Fine by me." Shard replied before redrawing his beam saber and flying forward to meet his opponent head on.

Meanwhile the _Archangel _who had been engaged with the Blitz for most of the battle found itself stuck in another sticky situation the Blitz had disappeared again and had been invisible for several minutes now not making a move. Then all of a sudden the bridge shuddered and several blasts were felt below it.

"What was that?" Murrue questioned hoping someone would give her an answer.

"It's the Blitz it slipped past our defenses and from the looks of it is firing at the base of the ships superstructure which also means he is standing on the ship." Natarle replied teeth clenched in frustration.

"A few more hits from that position and were finished." Murrue yelled out.

Miriallia then quickly punched a few buttons on her console and cried out to Kira through the radio "Kira the Blitz is on the ship and is firing at the bridge a few more hits and were done for."

Mir wasn't sure if Kira had heard it, and if he hadn't the _Archangel_ was as good as sunk.

Kira however, did hear Mir's call and he had to do something fast if he was going to try and save the _Archangel _he'd have to break off from this dual with the Duel fast.

In Kira's brief moment of distraction Yzak saw an opportunity and took it "Now your finished Strike Yzak said as he prepared to bring down his beam saber and slice the Strike in half right down the middle.

"_Nows my chance!" _Kira thought as images of Flays fathers ship exploding, of a little girl before the battle, and of Flay yelling and scolding him after the fight saying he didn't fight his hardest, and it was at that moment an amethyst seed burst in Kira's minds eye and Kira's eyes became clear.

"Take this!" Kira roared out knocking the Duel's beam saber aside and then brought his own saber up and sliced part of the Duel's right arm and then made a large gash in the Duel's cockpit and then used the Duel as a springboard to kick off towards the _Archangel_.

"You bastard!" Yzak could be heard screaming at the top of his lungs as he was knocked back and became disoriented.

Nicol who was still blasting at the bridge almost didn't notice the Strike's approach only seeing it out of the corner of his eye "Shit I almost had it!" Nicol cursed as he turned to face the Strike.

"Back off!" Kira yelled out as he avoided a beam rifle blast from the Blitz and then kneed the Blitz in the stomach while simultaneously punching it in the face knocking the Blitz away from the Archangel.

Then just as Kira was breathing a sigh of relief the Duel appeared practically out of nowhere.

"Now Strike game over!" Yzak triumphantly roared.

"Not yet." Kira flatly stated drawing one of the Strike's combat knives and stabbing into the gash in the Duel's cockpit armor the inside of which did not have PS armor which made the attack successful not even allowing Yzak to land a blow with his beam saber.

Inside the Duel's cockpit several of Yzak's monitors were overloading and exploding. One sharp piece of metal however, broke loose and slammed into Yzak's faceplate, which made Yzak howl in pain.

The Duel then fell back and was caught by the Blitz "Yzak are you okay we have to leave the enemy fleet is here." Nicol asked concerned for Yzak's well being.

"It burns, it burns, it burns was all Yzak was able to scream out as he clutched his wounded face.

On a different part of the battlefield Cindy had finally made it so that both enemy Zeros were so damaged they were going to have to retreat.

"Let's pull back Morgan I can see the 8th fleet." Mu said sounding extremely relieved.

"Right Mu." Morgan replied equally relieved as he and Mu both took off heading back towards the _Archangel_.

"Shit." Cindy said when she saw the oncoming Earth Alliance fleet "We still couldn't take those bastards down." Cindy muttered as she took off foe the _Cold Storm_.

The final fight on the battlefield was also coming to a close as Tim and Shard backed their mobile suits away from the others.

"It looks like we'll have to settle this another time Gray Raven our backup is here and I know you won't stay any longer the risks are to high." Shard knowingly said with a grimace.

"Your right Shard another time then." Tim said as he began to head back to the _Cold Storm_.

"I will be looking forward to it." Shard said as he also returned to his mother ship thinking of his recent battle with the Gray Raven and how the Gray Raven could possibly work into his plans. "Soon my plan will begin to come together." Shard said darkly as he left the now empty battlefield behind him.

Authors Notes: Well that does it for chapter nine sorry it took so long. What is this hidden agenda and secret plan the devious Shard is concocting keep on reading and reviewing to find out and by the way I hope everyone had a nice holiday.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	10. Doppelganger

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, and Shard Mitchells

Authors Notes: Hello Readers! I'm back by popular demand. The real world showed it's ugly head for awhile and I've been busy but the point is I'm back. And just as a warning a major AU even will occur in this chapter so be ready for it.

**Model Number**: 0XX-000X

**Unit Type**: mass produced assault and infiltration mobile suit

**Code Name**: Viper

**Manufacturer**???

**Operators**???

**First Deployment**: February 12, CE 71

**Accommodations**: Pilot only in standard cockpit in torso

**Dimensions**: 16.8 meters

**Weight**: 80 metric tons

**Construction**: unknown

**Power plant**: enhanced ultracompact energy battery

**Equipment and design features**: sensors, Mirage Colloid, hover jets (mounted in feet)

**Fixed Armaments**: "Shiva" 115mm rail gun x2 (Mounted on shoulders)

8-tube missile launcher x2 (mounted in shoulders)

beam saber x2 (mounted on backpack)

"Igellstellung X" 75mm enhanced APSV CIWS x2 (mounted in head)

**Optional Fixed Armaments**: TQM5 beam bazooka

75mm beam rifle with 175mm grenade launcher

Technical and Historical notes: Not much is known about the construction processes used in the creation of this formidable suit. It bears a strong resemblance to the Serpent suits from endless waltz with the same style legs as the Rick Dom II. Because of it's immense weight it has hover jets installed in it's legs and feet so it can hover on land, inside PLANTS, or even over water.

Now on with the story!

_Cold Storm_, Tim's quarters, February 12, CE 71

Tim sat in his office looking over the reports sitting on his desk. Rodger was apparently recovering nicely and would soon be ready to sortie while his CGUE was also repaired and ready to go. He had also received word from the _Gamow_ that the Buster was completely screwed for the moment and even if it wasn't its pilot was in the infirmary on the ship and wouldn't be allowed to even go near a mobile suit for a little while.

"Great with Dearka and the Buster the odds of our next crazy scheme actually working are even better." Raven muttered sarcastically.

Tim had also gotten word that the Duel was being equipped with an assault shroud like Rodger's CGUE. Which in Tim's opinion was just more firepower for the Duel's hot tempered pilot to abuse.

Tim leaned back in his chair, his thoughts wandering from place to place until they finally rested on a certain pink haired pilot "I wonder if Cindy still has that boyfriend she was talking about a few days before they started pursuing the _Archangel_." He wondered aloud. "Wait why does it matter? I mean we're just friends after all why should it matter?" Tim paused to take a moment to breathe before continuing "Its Howard he put these thoughts in my head it's all his doing." Tim's mind then thought of the time he walked in on Cindy and saw her standing in her underwear and mumbled out loud "Or maybe these thoughts really are my own."

"Sorry to interrupt your rant Raven but did my ears deceive or were you talking to yourself about a certain young woman by the name of Cindy Rollins." Nicol Amalfi smirked as he leaned against the doorframe of Tim's room.

"Nicol how long have you been there." Tim blushed.

"Well right about the time you started saying, wait why does it matter? I mean we're just friends after all why should it matter?" Nicol's smirk got even bigger.

"Uh Nicol that wasn't what it looked like, I mean sounded like, I mean Nicol please don't say anything about this." Tim managed to stutter out his face all the while reddening.

"Of course not Tim it's fairly obvious how you feel about her I mean everyone can tell except for you two. You two are in a serious case of denial is what it is." The green haired pilot lectured.

"Maybe your right Nicol." Tim muttered hanging his head low before continuing "But even if that is true Nicol, Cindy could never want me I've lied about my entire past to her and I'm just a bitter man consumed by vengeance."

"Do you think Blair would want you to go on living out the rest of your days alone because of something as trifle as this revenge of yours. No Tim she'd want you to move and I'm sure if you explained the situation to Cindy she would understand." Nicol argued.

Tim's head shot up his eyes becoming orbs of ice "Nicol I'm a monster I cast away my life in the name of this vengeance and have even cast away my family name in this quest for retribution. All of those people I have killed in the name of it at Jachin Due, the battles between then and Endymion, even at Nova a killed without mercy even going so far as to strike down disabled Earth Alliance machines. Nicol my hands are stained with to much blood to ever be truly forgiven and I have lied to Cindy to much for her to ever except me. Face it Nicol my revenge has turned me into an irredeemable monster."

To say the least Nicol was a little shocked by all of this but still he refused to let his newfound friend go on thinking he was beyond salvation so he walked over to him and slapped him in the face "Raven despite what you think you are not beyond forgiveness and I will not let you think things like that." Nicol smiled "So never let yourself believe it either."

Tim looked stunned for a moment before replying "Thanks Nicol… so what do you say we go get something to eat and then go visit Rodger down in the infirmary?"

"Sounds awesome Raven let's go." And with that the two friends walked down to the ships cafeteria talking all the way.

_Archangel_, Shard's quarters, February 12, CE 71

Shard sat alone in his darkened room on the Archangel staring into a computer terminal intently. He looked through several pages of information on the success of his groups project at Mendel and how the doppelganger was completed and ready to assume his post.

"Perfect once the doppelganger is in place our mobile suit production will increase exponentially." The commander gave a thin smile and read on.

The next section of the file contained information on the production of the Viper units. They had a total of twenty units complete at the moment and once the doppelganger was in place going by his calculations Shard would be able to triple the machines production.

After Shard completely went through all the information on the file he sent a message back to the sender Dr. Faust to proceed with Operation Doppelganger. Shard then proceeded to cover his tracks deleting the file, and anything that could link the file to his terminal while also making sure that his message could not be traced back to him.

"Things are going just as planned once the Vipers are in numbers strong enough to pose a threat the plan will really start to come together all Faust has to do is get the doppelganger into position." Shared muttered as he shut the computer off and exited his room Admiral Halberton was coming and he had to be there when the good Admiral arrived.

Shard turned his bone-chilling gaze to all passing crewman who backed away from him promptly giving Shard pretty much the entire hallway to move in as he pleased.

"_Halberton…He will have to be removed from the equation."_ Shard concluded as he stalked down the hall to the hanger were the Admiral was due to arrive anytime.

Cold Storm, Infirmary

Tim and Nicol walked into the infirmary and saw that Rodger was talking with Cindy Rodger was still being forced to stay in his bed though.

"Hay Cindy, Rodger what's up?" Tim called out to the pair.

"Hay Raven, and what's up Nicol it's been awhile since I saw you face to face." Rodger answered back.

"It's good to see you Rodger and you to Cindy." Nicol smiled.

"It's good to see you to Nicol." Cindy greeted.

"Well now that all that's out of the way Rodger I've got some good news for you." Tim cheerfully said.

"And what would that be?" Rodger asked curiously.

"Well your CGUE is now officially repaired and you've been cleared to sortie in the next battle." Tim answered.

"Great anything to get out of this place it's driving me insane." Rodger groaned through gritted teeth running his hands down his face as he did so.

"When is the next sortie going to be anyway Tim?" Cindy asked interested in the prospect of another battle.

"Oh nothing major we're just going to take on the entire 8th Fleet." Tim answered trying to look as though the assignment seemed trivial.

"WHAT!" Was the general response of everyone in the room.

"We're going to take on the 8th Fleet." Tim repeated "The only thing we're waiting on is for Commander Creuset to arrive and he's also bringing reinforcements in the form of the _Laurasia _class ship _Ziegler_ and the _Ziegler_ itself is carrying a full complement of GINNs. These reinforcements will give us ten GINNs, the Commander's CGUE, the Aegis, Blitz, Cindy's GINN, mine and Rodger's CGUEs, and possibly the Duel if Yzak is ready in time for the operation. This will give us a grand total of seventeen mobile suits."

"What about the Buster?" Rodger questioned.

"Dearka was injured in the last battle by the red Earth Forces suit and the Buster also sustained a large amount of damage." Nicol answered.

"You mean the one that shot me down?" The coordinator asked.

"Yeah him." Nicol grimly replied.

"God I can't wait for a rematch with that guy I'll tear him to pieces." Rodger seethed.

"Calm down Rodger and save it for the battlefield." Cindy sagely said.

"Your right Cindy but I'm going to get that bastard if it's the last thing I do." Rodger declared.

Just then the ships doctor a short auburn haired woman named Iris Mahogany walked in and said that Rodger needed his rest and that they had to leave.

Open exiting Nicol said that he needed to head back to the Gamow and Cindy said she needed to get some sleep saying she hadn't been able to get a good 'nights' rest since the last battle. Thus Tim Blackstar, the Gray Raven was left in the hallway, alone. Tim thought about going down to the hanger to talk to Howard but decided against it deciding instead to just head back to his quarters.

"I wonder if this new plan will actually work?" Tim muttered to himself a few minutes later as he entered his quarters. "Of course it's suicide to take on an entire fleet even with our numbers but it's worth a shot I guess." The Raven uttered with an audible sigh as he sat in the leather chair behind his desk. Once he was settled in he pulled his raven pendant out of its hiding place inside his collar allowing it to fall across his chest before starting to float slightly. Tim then gazed out at the stars and marveled at there magnificence completely unaware of the problems that plagued the galaxy they rested in. "I wonder if there is anything going on in the PLANTS." Tim asked no one as he continued his stargazing.

Bridge of the modified _Nazca_ class ship _Fallen Angel_

Warren Faust stood on the bridge of the solid black Nazca class vessel staring towards Aprilius One intently. Faust was a tall, pale man, with shoulder length blonde hair, and was dressed in solid black except for the large white trench coat that he wore. Faust's ship the _Fallen Angel_ was currently hidden by its Mirage Colloid cloaking system so that the mobile suit patrols would not spot the ship that so dangerously waited outside the PLANTS capitol. Their 'organization' had found the remains of a ruined Nazca and restored it adding in features their leader had acquired from the Earth Alliance such as the Mirage Colloid. The end result was the _Fallen Angel, which was faster than the average Nazca,_ and had some weapons borrowed from the Archangel class.

Faust who was the captain of the formidable ship suddenly rounded on the officer who was in charge of mobile suit launchings and operations "Crewman Allister tell the Revenant team that they have launch clearance and that once they are on the launch catapults to activate their units Mirage Colloid."

"Yes sir." Allister replied as he began to obey his commanders orders.

_Fallen Angel_, Hanger

On the Fallen Angel's launch catapult stood the commanding unit of the Revenant team. It appeared to be a regular Viper unit except for a few cosmetic differences but this Viper was actually tuned for higher speed than the others. The cosmetic differences were that the machine instead of being black like regular Vipers was a striking shade of orange, on its right shoulder it bore a skull and crossbones emblem, on its left shoulder the phrase Def Rock was written and below the mobile suits knee in capital letters was DF with a star beside it. Inside the cockpit sat two people each wearing a solid black normal suit.

The pilot then heard the voice of the ships mobile suits operations officer ring over his radio _"Commander Revenant you are clear for launch and Captain Faust also wishes to know if you have the doppelganger secured inside the cockpit?"_

The black suited man in the pilots chair then replied in a voice that sounded slightly mechanical "The doppelganger is secure and I am launching now!" And with that the Viper activated it's Mirage Colloid and shot out of the catapult towards Aprilius One followed by two more normal Vipers.

_Fallen Angel_, Bridge

Faust watched on one of the main view screens as each suit launched from the hanger his cold emerald eyes watching each unit intently especially the first.

He waited until all the suits had launched before muttering to himself "If Revenant's mission is a success then the entire face of this war will change." Faust then walked over to the captain's chair and sat down laying on arm on each of the chairs armrests. _"All that's left to do now is wait."_

Aprilius One

Patrick Zala was on his way to the council meeting that was scheduled for today and he was in a very bad mood. His chauffer was taking much longer than usual and he wanted to be on time because it would look good on his record when elections for the new Chairman of the Council came up in a few months. Zala also finally seemed to notice that the limo wasn't even heading in the direction of the capital building but were now in the Aprilius One countryside!

Patrick's face began to turn red with anger as he began to berate the driver "Driver where are you going we are no where near the capital Building!"

"I'm sorry sir but we are going to have to make a quick stop." The driver replied nonchalantly.

"What are you talking about nothing could be as important as me getting to this meeting!" Zala growled.

"Just relax sir were here." The driver calmly stated as the limo came to a stop in what appeared to be a secluded area within the Aprilius One countryside.

The driver then stepped out of the front of the limo walked to the back where Patrick's door was located and opened it "Mr. Zala I'm going to ask that you step out of the car."

"And what makes you think I'll listen to you?" Zala said with a defiant smirk. Zala then heard then sounds of guns snapping into a firing position and turned to see the two security personnel who had been in the limo with him had their machine pistols trained on him. " I see." Zala admitting his defeat stepped out of the limo and held up his hands and was quickly followed by the two security personnel.

"Perfect and Commander Revenant should be arriving soon with the doppelganger." The driver grinned as he looked at the wristwatch on his left arm.

"What are you talking about?" Zala demanded.

"Your really in no position to be asking me anything Councilman Zala just sit back and wait and soon you will see."

The small group waited for a few minutes more and just as Zala was about to make another outburst suddenly three shapes began to materialize out of thin air and after a few moments the three Viper units were standing in front of the group.

"Those mobile suits aren't ZAFT models were they built by the Earth Alliance?" Zala asked as he stared in awe as he stared at the three machines which each appeared to be toting some kind of bazooka.

"That Councilman Zala is the 0XX-000X Viper and it is far superior to any mass produced unit ZAFT has in production at this moment." The limo driver informed him as the cockpit hatch of the orange Viper opened up and two figures in solid black normal suits exited the machine. "Commander Revenant so good to see you I assume the man behind you is the doppelganger?" The limo driver greeted.

The man identified as Commander Revenant removed his helmet revealing a blonde haired male in his teens who had his left eye shut with a long scar going over the eyelid while his right eye locked onto the speaker "It's good to see you again to Cartwright and yes that is the doppelganger behind me."

Patrick Zala looked on in horrified astonishment this man calling himself Revenant was Miguel Aiman! "Miguel Aiman is that you? Commander Creuset said you were killed by that Earth Forces machine the Strike!" Zala suddenly cried out.

"Councilman Zala I myself thought I was dead but it seems fate had something else in mind but I'm not Miguel Aiman anymore I go by the name Revenant now. Not that it will matter to you much in a moment any way." The one eyed mobile suit pilot stated.

Before Zala could reply to this he felt one of the pistols prod him in the back and heard it's wielder order him to remove his attire except for any under garments he may have. Zala was about to protest when another prod from the pistol silenced him.

After Zala had done as he was ordered and his Council member attire was neatly folded on the ground Revenant gave a quick and curt order to the security personnel "Execute him."

Before Zala could say any thing several bullets passed through his skull and his life was extinguished.

"Okay Doppelganger get dressed you have a council meeting to get to." Revenant commanded the other man in a black normal suit.

The man removed his helmet only to reveal the face of Patrick Zala! The doppelganger then got out of the normal suit and changed into the former Patrick's clothes before replying "Any more orders Commander Revenant?"

"No just carry on your duties and wait for either Shard or Captain Faust to contact you for further instructions."

"Yes sir." And with that the new Patrick Zala entered the limo followed by the two security officers.

"Cartwright help me get our friend here in this normal suit." Revenant ordered as he picked up the discarded suit and walked over to Patrick Zala's corpse.

"Yes sir." Cartwright replied as he walked over to where Revenant was.

After a few minutes the former Council member was dressed in the flight suit and ready to be taken away.

"You better get going Cartwright people will start to get suspicious if Zala is to late." Revenant commented.

"Your right of course. Well I guess I'll see you later Commander." Cartwright grinned as he got inside the limo and drove away.

"Plan went off without a hitch." Revenant mused to himself as he lifted up Patrick Zala's body and made his way over to his machine.

A few moments later all three Vipers dematerialized and there was no trace of the events that had just happened moments ago in this secluded little corner of Aprilius One.

Authors Notes: Well that does it for Chapter 10 guys hope you liked it. Next chapters the battle with the 8th fleet so be looking for it.

Rau Le Creuset 88


	11. Suicide Run

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, Shard Mitchells and his organization except Miguel

_Cold Storm_, Tim's quarters, February 13, CE 71

Tim sat at his desk drumming his fingers on his desk waiting to receive word from the _Vesalius_, which had arrived a few moments earlier if they were ready to begin the operation.

"_Commander Blackstar?"_ Tim heard a voice question from the small monitor built into his desk.

Tim looked down at the monitor and saw the face of Captain Lewis "Yes Lewis what is it?" Questioned the Raven.

"_The Vesalius has sent over word that she is ready to begin"_ Answered Lewis.

"Excellent now Lewis set the ship to Level One battle stations." Tim ordered.

"_Yes sir."_ Lewis replied before his image disappeared from the monitor.

After the brief exchange Tim stood up and walked out of the room just as the alarm for Level One battle stations.

_Cold Storm_, Cindy's quarters

Cindy shot up from where she was laying on the bed. The alarm for Level One battle stations was going off.

"Time to begin Raven's suicide run I guess." Cindy spoke aloud as she slid on some clothes over her pink lingerie.

After a few more moments Cindy was ready to go and was taking off towards the pilots locker room.

_Cold Storm_, Infirmary

Rodger was out of his bed and sliding on his red coat uniform as the alarm went off.

"_At last I'll finally be able to do something besides occupy space in this hell hole." _Rodger silently mused with glee as he walked out the doors of the infirmary leaving behind a very frustrated looking Iris Mahogany who despite Rodger's now perfect health still believed he needed to stay in bed and needed more medical treatment.

_Cold Storm_, Hanger

Cindy was just now walking into the hanger after a brief trip to the Pilot's Locker room to change into her normal suit. She gazed over at her pink GINN, which still had the boosters, equipped to the legs from the last battle and began to head towards it when she heard someone call to her.

"Hey Cindy hang on a minute." She heard someone call out from behind her.

She turned to see Raven floating towards her from his CGUE DEEP Arms.

"Yeah Raven what is it?" She responded pleasantly.

"_Okay here I go I'm finally going to ask Cindy out."_ Tim thought with glee. "Cindy I just wanted you to know I…" Tim said before he froze up while thinking in his head _"SHIT!"_

"Yeah Raven go on" Cindy made a slight gesture to emphasize the point.

"I just wanted you to know that I'm going to try and fight Morgan in this battle so don't worry about him." Tim quickly muttered the first thing that came to mind as he quickly turned and headed back to his CGUE before Cindy could say anything in response. _"What the hell was I thinking Cindy would probably say no anyway and I mad myself look like a complete idiot."_ Tim scorned himself as he entered his machine.

However Unbeknownst to either Tim or Cindy, Rodger had seen the entire thing transpire and pretty much had an idea about what Raven was going to say.

"So close everyone knows how you feel and Cindy feels the same way why can't you two idiots just admit it to each other." Rodger said sagely.

"You got that right Simmons those two idiots are made for each other but they just can't see it." Said a scruffy voice from behind Rodger.

Rodger jumped slightly in surprise but once he recovered he turned to see the grizzled face of Howard "You scared me to death you damn grease monkey." Rodger shouted at the mechanic.

"Sorry about that but you do agree with me don't you Rodger." The so-called grease monkey questioned.

"Of course I do but now's not the time to discuss it Howard." Rodger answered as he turned towards his CGUE and ran off "See you later Howard."

"See ya fly boy!" Howard called back as he watched the other coordinator enter his mobile suit and saw the hatch close.

_Archangel_, Shard's quarters

Shard sat staring into the terminal in his room once more silently gazing at the report Faust had sent him. Shard grinned as he saw that their 'doppelganger' was in place and a new development had occurred as well there R and D team at Mendel had developed a program that would allow there Viper units to function by themselves in combat so that there organization which did not posses all the man power necessary to use every single Viper that they would soon be able to produce. They would not be able to function as well as mobile suits with human pilots but they could get the job done or so Shard was informed by the report.

"Well that is good news indeed! I wonder what Rau Le Creuset would think if he knew that his own well laid plans were just made defunct by our placement of the doppelganger?" The crimson-eyed conspirator mused as he stood up after he finished covering up his tracks, and began to contemplate the issue of how to eliminate Halberton as he walked out of his room and down to the hanger.

_Archangel_, Hanger

Morgan sat in the cockpit of his Moebius Zero attempting to run a systems check to make sure everything was in order inside his mobile armor. While the systems check was running he saw that the _Menelaos _had sent over two blue and white fighter planes.

"Probably for me and Mu to use when we arrive on Earth." Concluded the Blue Cosmos "If we make it to Earth." He finished so that only he could hear.

"Hey Reaper!" Morgan heard someone call out to him from the outside of his Zero.

Morgan climbed from the cockpit to see Mu La Flaga himself standing near one of his Zero's gunbarrels "Hey Mu what's up."

"I just wanted to ask you if you thought we would end up going into battle?" The Hawk asked.

"Well to tell you the truth Mu I think we're not going to make a clean getaway to Earth my special awareness is telling me so I mean if ZAFT does attack we have numerical superiority but ZAFT's mobile suits are far beyond what any mobile armor in the fleet can do." The Reaper explained.

"But it's not like were lacking mobile suits ourselves Morgan I mean we do have the Strike and the Rustung." Mu retorted.

"But since the _coordinator_ is leaving we don't have anyone that can pilot the Strike." Morgan replied.

"Point taken but it's not like Mitchells and that Rustung of his are pushovers either."

"You raise a valid point Mu but I still don't understand how that man can pilot a mobile suit with a coordinator OS without being a _coordinator_! I just can't figure it out." Morgan complained obviously annoyed about not knowing how the red haired man could control his mobile suit.

Deciding to change the subject Mu asked "So Reaper what do you think of Captain Ramias?"

"Well Mu I honestly think she's as hot as Shard's voice is cold to tell you the truth." Morgan grinned.

"Really?" Mu questioned.

"Yeah, why Mu do you have a thing for the Captain or something?" Morgan gave a smirk and watched as Mu began to turn a deep shade of red.

"No Morgan it's not like that I just wanted to know what you thought about her." Mu snapped back quickly.

"What ever you say O mighty Hawk of Endymion!' Morgan jested while raising his hands in a very dramatic manner.

"Forget it." Mu said as he stalked off still beet red and muttering about how he didn't have a thing for Captain Ramias.

Morgan shook his head as he watched the blonde walk over to his own Zero "Same old Mu." He said with a grin before ducking back down inside the cockpit of his Zero.

Near the 8th Fleet, Earth's orbit

The scarred CGUE rocketed towards the 8th Fleet behind him followed a heavily modified CGUE and Recon GINN, another CGUE and four GINNS along with Nicol's Blitz, and Athrun's Aegis.

"At least I have plenty of targets to pick from." Tim murmured as the 8th Fleet finally came into view.

Silently steering his DEEP Arms away from the group he flew towards a _Drake_ class ship called the _Rooker_. But of Course by the time the ships crew noticed the gray CGUE it was to late.

"Burn in hell!" Tim cried out as he fired his cannons at the small ships missile pods and after several shots completely destroyed all four of the pods.

Inside the _Rooker_ the crew was beginning to panic as they watched the CGUE disable one of their only two Vulcan turrets with its laser sword.

"Hurry and launch our Moebius units!" The Captain bellowed out.

"There's no time sir!" An officer managed to yell back just before they saw the point of the scarred CGUE's laser sword as it came through the bridge.

Outside the ship Tim began to fire his cannons until the beams had turned the ships superstructure into Swiss cheese, which gave Tim just enough time to back away before the _Rooker_ disappeared in a tremendous explosion.

"Well that's one down God knows how many more to go." Tim let out a heavy sigh as he took off to rejoin his comrades.

_Gamow_, Hanger

The Duel Gundam now equipped with an assault shroud stood beside the Buster in the _Gamow's _hanger as mechanics buzzed around doing work on the two machines. While the mechanics went about their duties up on a catwalk that lead to the Duel's cockpit a conflict was ensuing.

"But Mr. Joule you're not ready for combat!" A desperate mechanic weakly argued with Yzak.

"Says you! I can't pass up an opportunity to get that bastard that flies the Strike." Yzak snarled his temper flaring as he climbed inside the Duel's cockpit.

"Please Mr. Joule reconsider this." The mechanic begged.

"NO!" Yzak roared out at the mechanic one final time as the Duel's hatch shut and the machine began to move.

Yzak stepped his machine onto the catapult and before launch control could say anything Yzak yelled out "Yzak Joule Duel Assault Shroud taking off!" And just like that Yzak was off blinded by his hatred and rage towards the Strike pilot.

Battlefield, just outside Earth's Orbit

Cindy so far had destroyed twenty Moebius units and had not even broken a sweat it was to easy to emphasize that point even further she split an incoming Moebius down the middle with the beam saber in her GINN's right hand.

"Hey Cindy have you seen the legged ship yet?" The voice of Rodger boomed.

"Tim radioed in a little while ago and told me it was in the center of the fleet by the flagship." Cindy answered back as she saw Rodger eliminate a Moebius with his railgun.

"Makes since I guess but why aren't they deploying their mobile weapons?"

"No idea." The pink haired pilot called back as she took off deeper into the battlefield "But lets see if we can find out?"

"I'm with you there!" Rodger smirked as he flew after the image of the flickering GINN.

Elsewhere on the field of combat Tim and Nicol were blasting away at a _Nelson_ when they realized they realized enemy Moebius units surrounded them.

"Damn how did they all surround us with out us seeing them?" Nicol muttered as his eyes wandered over the group of Moebius units that had them surrounded.

"No idea but we're not gonna let ourselves be finished off by these weaklings are we?" Tim smirked as he positioned his CGUE so that it was back to back with Nicol's Blitz.

"No way Raven!" The green haired pianist replied as put his beam rifle into a firing position right as Tim's thermal cannons shot up.

The two then began to rotate their mobile suits around in a circle spinning at unbelievable speeds all the while their weapons spitting emerald death. Some of Moebius units did manage to squeeze off a few shots but they were either deflected, or missed the targets completely. After a few more moments the pair stopped spinning and noticed the group of mobile armors that had been there only seconds ago had been completely destroyed.

"Well now that that's done lets finish off this _Nelson_!" Nicol cried out as he fired the Blitz's rocket anchor into the ships bridge.

Right after Nicol retracted the anchor he and Tim saw what looked like the Duel wearing an assault shroud rocket past them.

"Was that the Duel? I thought Yzak still didn't have clearance to sortie." Tim commented as he lost track of the Duel.

"So did I but you know Yzak, he always hates to be left behind."

"Good point but lets see if we can't get any closer to the legged ship Nicol!" Tim challenged as he flew deeper into the 8th Fleet.

"Hey Raven wait up!" Nicol called out to the older man as he took off after him.

_Archangel_, Bridge

Murrue Ramias watched the battle with a look of absolute horror etched on her face. This was a nightmare Admiral Halberton and the 8th fleets were being blown away before her very eyes it was just too much to stand.

So finally Murrue mad up her mind "Contact the _Menelaos_ get me Admiral Halberton!"

A few seconds later Admiral Halberton's agitated face appeared on a screen "What is it?" He asked raising his voice slightly.

"Admiral Halberton we are requesting permission to break away from the 8th Fleet and proceed down to Earth." Murrue stated without preamble.

"What? Are you people trying to save your own skins?" Murrue heard the angry voice of Hoffman lash out.

"No sir it's not like that at all. Its just ZAFT is after us so if we move away from the Fleet they will follow us and leave you alone." Murrue replied to the angry man.

Murrue looked up at Halberton and saw him smile "Your still reckless as ever Murrue Ramias."

"I learned from the best and thank you sir." Murrue returned the smile.

_Menelaos_, Bridge

On his flagship Lewis Halberton saw Murrue smile and then her image disappeared from the monitor.

"You don't think they're just trying to save themselves do you Admiral Halberton?" Halberton heard Hoffman ask.

"No Hoffman I don't but ZAFT already has taken out over half of the fleet and most of it was because of our own G-Weapons." Halberton commented as he slammed his fist down on his armrest.

After a moments silence he then ordered his helmsman to bring the ship about so they could cover the Archangel.

"Murrue Ramias this may be my last gift to you." Halberton murmured as the _Menelaos_ was brought about.

_Archangel_, Hanger

Mu was really beginning to get frustrated. The 8th Fleet was getting butchered and he couldn't do any thing about it.

It was right, as Mu was getting ready to call up to the bridge that he heard someone call out to him "Commander La Flaga why haven't you and the others launched yet?"

La Flaga turned and saw Kira floating towards the Strike in a pilot suit "Kid what are you doing here? Didn't you get those discharge papers Lt. Badgiruel was supposed to give you?"

"I decided that this was where I needed to be so that I could protect my friends and maybe make a small difference in the war." Kira proclaimed proudly.

"Glad to here it kid." The Hawk of Endymion grinned.

"What the _coordinator _is back?" Morgan shouted as he jumped out of his Zero's cockpit while silently thinking, _"Damn I was hoping that the time Halberton visited was the last time I'd have to see the little freak."_

"Yeah Morgan the kids back so now we do have a pilot for the Strike after all." Mu smirked at the violet haired man.

It was at that moment while Kira was watching the two men talk he felt himself bump into something solid he then turned to find himself staring into Shard's twin orbs of frozen fire.

"Good to have you back Kira, you should make things a lot more… interesting." Shard stated before floating over to the Rustung and entering its cockpit.

Kira stared at the man as he went. Something about that man frightened Kira something about him seemed very wrong. Kira however pushed it out of his mind and entered the Strikes cockpit while opening up a channel to the bridge.

After a few moments Murrue's shocked face appeared on the screen "Kira is that you?"

"Yes Captain I'm requesting permission to launch."

"No Kira that's out of the question we will be entering the atmosphere soon." The mahogany headed woman replied to the teenager.

It was then Mu butted in from his Zero's cockpit "If we return before the Archangel enters Stage 3 we should be safe Captain."

"And according to the Strike's manual it can survive atmospheric reentry." Kira added on.

"That's only in theory." Natarle decided to butt in from her chair in the CIC.

"Please Captain." Kira started to beg.

Murrue bit her lip for a moment before she finally consented "Fine just make sure all four of you come back before Stage 3, and tell Morgan and Shard of this as well."

"Yes ma'am!" Kira and Mu responded together.

"Kira you go ahead and launch I'll tell Morgan and Shard."

"Sure Commander La Flaga sir." Kira replied as he began to walk the Strike onto one of the _Archangel's_ catapults.

"You got it kid." La Flaga grinned as he watched the Aile pack equip to the Strike and the white machine fly down the catapult.

Mu then radioed over to Shard and Morgan and told them of the plan and within moments all three machines had exited the _Archangel_.

Battlefield, outside Earth's Orbit

Tim and Nicol had last track of each other some time ago after the saw the Duel. Tim himself was flying dead on towards the legged ship which he now had a straight path to.

"Perfect I'll be the one to take that ship down at last!" Tim roared in triumph as the white ship only got closer and closer.

"Do not ask for who the bell tolls it tolls for thee!"

Tim barely reacted in time he pulled back on the controls and the nine blasts of kinetic energy shot right past him "Hello Reaper long time no see."

"It's good to see you to Raven I don't have long to play so I'm going to have to finish you off quick!" Morgan snarled as he fired another volley from his weapons.

Tim quickly ducked behind the wreckage of a _Drake_ and heard all nine shots collide with the ships hull as he flew out the other side and fired his cannons at the violet Zero.

"I really hate those Damn things!" Morgan yelled through gritted as he pulled up and missed the two blasts by an inch.

It soon became obvious that this fight wasn't going to be a walk in the park.

Inside the Rustung's cockpit Shard demonically smiled as he saw the _Menelaos _and activated his Mirage Colloid so that his unit would not be detected. Shard was contemplating a way to make it look like the ship just didn't suddenly explode for no reason. His mega cannon could take the entire ship out with one well-placed shot but it would be to suspicious he needed something that could realistically be blamed for the ships destruction and he soon saw the way to go about it. One of the _Laurasia's_ was charging the _Menelaos_. All Shard had to do was wait for the ships to exchange fire for a moment or to and then he could dispose of Halberton and the Laurasia as well.

"Perfect. They shall all soon see how I earned the nickname Hell's Hound." Shard's cold voice said so quietly it was almost a whisper as he sat and waited for his chance to strike.

_Gamow_, Hanger

Dearka was weakly limping towards his machine and was being followed by the same mechanic who had followed Yzak.

"Mr. Elsman please listen to reason your worse off than Mr. Joule you can't possibly expect to go out there and fight." The mechanic just like last time futilely pleaded.

"No way everybody else is out there and there's no way I'm not gonna do anything to help them out." Replied a determined Dearka as he climbed into the machines cockpit.

"Please Mr. Elsman." The mechanic begged getting down on his hands and knees.

Dearka sat there for a moment acting as if he was actually thinking about listening but then replied very curtly "No." Before the Busters cockpit shut and the machine made it's way over to the catapult.

"Dearka Elsman preparing for launch." Dearka casually stated over the radio to the bridge crew.

"_Wait isn't that guy supposed to be in the infirmary? Some body stop him!"_ A voice cried out from the other end of the radio.

"Would everybody please just get off my back!" Dearka shouted into the radio before the Buster shot out into the battlefield

Battlefield, just outside Earth's Orbit

Kira Yamato was cruising through the battlefield briskly firing at the occasional GINN while also firing at the ZAFT ships whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Kira had just fired a beam rifle shot at one of the _Nazcas _when he heard an angry voice snarl out "Take this you bastard!"

Kira looked up to see the Duel but it had some kind of extra armor equipped to it and it had fired a complement of missiles, several railgun shots, it's grenade, and a few beam rifle shots right at him.

"_Damn! This isn't going to be pretty!"_ Kira thought as he brought his shield up in front of the Strike and fired a shot from his beam rifle at the grenade the Duel had fired which caused it to explode and along with it the missiles. However, several of the beam rifle shots hit along with a few of the railgun's slugs but the Strike suffered no substantial damage.

"That was close." Kira sighed as he drew one of the Strike's beam sabers and flew towards the Duel.

"Yes Strike a beam saber duel should settle this but this time I'll come out the victor." Yzak roared drawing one of his own sabers as he flew at the Strike with a murderous look in his eyes.

The machines locked blades of frozen fire as they began their dance of death. They would break away then circle each other and then lock blades once again. Much like Tim and Morgan's battle it was apparent that this fight was going to take awhile.

Near the wreckage of several Nelsons and a Drake Cindy was having her own duel with Mu La Flaga the Hawk of Endymion. Rodger had gone off in search of the red mobile suit and not to long after that Cindy had come across the Hawk and his Zero and Cindy had to admit Mu wasn't a pushover even if he was using an outdated mobile armor.

"Come on La Flaga let's see what you've got!" Cindy challenged as she fired a shot from her beam sniper rifle before disappearing under her Mirage Colloid.

Mu dodged to the side but lost one of his gunbarrels to the shot.

"Damn and now that she's got that Mirage Colloid on I can't see her!" Mu slammed his fist down on a console in frustration before he got an idea. Mu began to spin his gunbarrels around his Zero in a very tight formation for several moments while constantly firing all three of the weapons until he finally saw a few of his shots connect with something and saw the pink GINN rematerialize "Bingo." The Hawk said with a satisfied grin on his face.

"Shit!" Cindy cried out as the shots from the Zero collide with her GINN.

Her Mirage Colloid was disabled and La Flaga had even blown the GINN's left arm and right leg away along with it's heavy sword.

"I'll kill you!" Cindy suddenly snarled hate evident in her voice as in her minds eye a pink seed shattered into pieces and Cindy's eyes became clear and she drew a beam saber and charged Mu.

Mu barely moved in time as the berserk coordinator almost cut his Zero to ribbons with her beam saber. However Mu saw his opening and took it he fired all his gunbarrels and his linear gun straight at the still berserk coordinator watching as the GINN's left back thruster, remaining arms and legs, the GINN's crest and even parts of the torso were blown away by the vicious onslaught of fire from the Zero's weapons.

Cindy exited SEED mode as the reality of her situation dawned on her "Dammit now I'm completely screwed!" She roared as she saw the Zero prepare to fire it's linear gun at her cockpit "I guess this is the end."

The Zero fired it's linear gun but right before the shell impacted a grayish white machine flew in front of her and blocked the shot with it's shield "Not this time Mu. I can't allow you to kill such a lovely young woman as Ms. Rollins here." Rau Le Creuset declared to his rival with an almost undetectable sneer in his voice.

"Le Creuset! I didn't realize you were out here jackal!" Mu sneered back at the masked Commander.

"Lets just cut the small talk Mu and get straight to the fight how does that sound?" Creuset smiled as he pointed his Vulcan shield at the Zero.

"Fine by me jackal! This time I'll make sure to finish you off!" Mu yelled back at Le Creuset as the two rivals flew forward to meet each other.

Shard had had flown over to the _Ziegler_ which was the _Laurasia _that was firing on the _Menelaos _and had also begun charging his mega cannon to try and make it look like one of the _Ziegler's_ cannons.

After a few moments Hell's Hound was ready "See you in Hell Halberton." Shard said coldly as he fired the monstrous green beam at the _Menelaos _It didn't seem to affect the flagship at first but after a few moments the _Agamemnon_ class vessel began to splinter and after a few more seconds the ship exploded in a brilliant flash of light.

"_And now that the Helios is warmed up…"_ Mitchells thought as he turned his attention towards the Ziegler and began to dematerialize "This is for Admiral Halberton you Bastards!" Shard who sounded as if he was actually outraged by the Admiral's death roared as he fired an even stronger mega cannon shot straight through the _Ziegler _into the ships reactor causing the ship to almost immediately explode.

"The Perfect crime." Shard muttered darkly as he flew towards another _Laurasia_ that ZAFT had brought with them for him to shoot down. "This is starting to become enjoyable." A sick grin spreading across his face as he said each and every word as he flew straight towards the _Gamow_.

Tim so the two enormous explosions and also saw the Rustung flying towards the Gamow charging it's mega cannon as it went. Tim knew he had to finish Morgan off and fast or Zellman and his crew were pretty much screwed. It was then that Tim's eyes cleared and he went into berserk mode as the song _Awake _by Godsmack began to play on his music file.

"Ready to call it quits Raven!" The Reaper called out right as he noticed the beams from the CGUE's cannons rip through two of his gunbarrels.

"I don't have time for this Morgan!" Tim roared at Lestrange sounding every bit like a lion as he did. Tim then pushed his thrusters to the limit and zoomed past Morgan heading towards the _Gamow_.

"Damn him!" Morgan wailed pounding his fists on the controls as he began to head back towards the _Archangel_.

Mu and Rau clashed once again as their machines flew past each other one shooting the other slicing.

Mu looked over and saw Morgan's violet Zero heading back towards it "Damn you idiot you almost forgot!" Mu mentally berated himself as he changed course and began to fly back to the _Archangel_.

"Another day then Mu?" Creuset called out to his rival as he picked up the cockpit of Cindy's ruined machine.

"Yeah jackal another day."

"I'll look forward to it then Mu." Creuset sneered as he took off for the _Cold Storm_ where he would drop Cindy off.

Shard stared down at the Gamow as his mega cannon charged after this he would return to the Archangel but it seemed fate had other plans. Suddenly the Rustung was rammed by a gray blur making it's cannon misfire.

"Well, well Raven so good to see you to." Shard greeted nonchalantly.

"I wish I could say the same." Tim growled at the Earth Alliance ace.

Just as Shard was about to respond missiles and railgun fire came out of nowhere and pounded his machine.

"Hey asshole remember me?" Rodger snarled as he flew up beside Tim's CGUE.

"Ah yes you were one of the weaklings I defeated the other was the pilot of the Buster." Shard grinned malevolently as he spoke each word.

"Who are you calling a weakling?" An angry Dearka roared as he fired a hyper impulse blast at the Rustung which blocked the attack with it's shield.

"Dearka what are you doing here?" Tim and Rodger asked at the same time.

"Yeah Dearka what are you doing here?" Athrun and Nicol also questioned as they flew towards the group.

"I'll explain all that later right now can we please focus on this guy." Dearka muttered gesturing towards the Rustung with one of his Buster's rifles.

It was then Shard decided to take advantage of the situation and disappeared.

"Where the hell did he go?" A very pissed Rodger asked through clenched teeth as the group began to look around for the Rustung.

That didn't have to search long as after a few moments they saw a huge pillar of green energy shoot up through the _Gamow_.

"DAMMIT!" Everyone roared out except Nicol who simply yelled out right as the _Gamow_ exploded "Captain Zellman!"

However it wasn't long before Shard struck again not giving the group time to lament as he rammed the Rustung into the Blitz and knocked the black mobile suit past the point of no return as it flew towards the _Archangel_.

"Until we meet again which I'm sure we will." Shard mocked over the radio waves as he landed on the _Archangel_.

"Nicol!" Was all Athrun and Tim could say as they watched their friend fall through the atmosphere along with the legged ship.

However they soon noticed some other people were missing from their group "Hey where are Cindy and Yzak?" Dearka asked.

"Commander Creuset radioed me and said he had to take Cindy back to the Cold Storm but I don't know about Yzak." Rodger replied.

The group then noticed two other objects falling through the atmosphere the Duel and the Strike!

"Oh shit Yzak and Nicol are falling now!" Dearka cried out as the two fell even further through the atmosphere until they were completely out of sight.

"Well I think we can all agree this mission was a failure." Athrun finally spoke up from the Aegis' cockpit in a very far away voice.

"Agreed." The rest of the group muttered as they floated among the wreckage of what used to be the Earth Alliance's 8th Fleet.

After several long minutes of silence Tim decided to break it "Lets head back to the ships."

"No argument from me." Rodger muttered.

"Me either." Dearka chimed in.

While Athrun didn't say anything at all as the Aegis flew back towards the remaining ZAFT forces ahead of the others.

And a few minutes the once horrific battlefield into a floating cemetery as the ZAFT units left the area and began their long trek back to the PLANTS.

Authors Notes: Well sorry for the late update but this one was longer than usual so I hope you guys enjoyed it. However I'm now going to be splitting my time between this story and a Kingdom Hearts story called Kingdom Heats: Chapel of War. So for all you big Kingdom Hearts fans look for it and support your boy!

Rau Le Creuset 88


	12. The Fall

The Gray Raven

I don't own anything except Tim Blackstar his team, Morgan Lestrange, Shard Mitchells and his organization except Miguel

_Laurasia _class_ Rutherford_, View port, February 15, CE 71

Cindy Rollins leaned on a rail looking out of one of the view ports of the _Laurasia_ class frigate _Rutherford_. It had been two days since the legged ship had fallen into Earth's atmosphere along with Yzak and Nicol.

"_I wouldn't have minded if it was just that aggravating little bastard Yzak that fell but he didn't have to take Nicol with him." _Cindy mused as she stared out at the stars. Cindy had always liked staring out at the stars ever since she was little.

Her mother and her used to look out at the stars all the time when she lived on Earth until they had to leave.

"Those Blue Cosmos bastards…" Cursed Cindy as a few small tears trickled down her face "Maybe one day though maybe I'll be able to look out at the stars again with someone who loves me as much as my mother did." Cindy wiped away the tears on her red coat jacket.

"Yo Cindy did you hear about Victoria? It fell yesterday so those assholes in the Earth Alliance are down a mass driver." Cindy heard Raven say from behind her.

"That's great!" Cindy chirped brightly as she turned to face her friend, instantly putting on a mask of false joy so as not to alert him something was wrong.

"So Cindy what were you doing out here by yourself anyway? Your usually not the type to go off by yourself." Raven commented intrigued by Cindy's strange behavior.

"Just looking out at the stars." Cindy looked over at the view port "it's what I do when I just want to get away from it all and think you know."

"Actually I do. When I'm in my room on the _Cold Storm_ I just stare out at them for hours." Raven said sheepishly while he to looked over at the view port.

The two pilots stood in silence for a moment, each not knowing what to say to the other. This was not a commonplace thing though because usually both pilots could talk for hours without running out of things to talk about and having long awkward silences were even more rare.

Tim though did have something he wanted to ask her but he was horribly nervous about asking her.

"_Oh come on you idiot! You'll fly headlong into a swarm of bloodthirsty mobile armors but you can't even ask a hot girl if she's single!"_ Tim mentally berated himself.

"Well Raven I hate to leave but I've got to go down to the hanger and run some checks on my new DINN." Cindy turned and headed toward the direction of the _Rutherford's_ hanger.

That snapped Tim out of his self induced session of verbal abuse and spurred him to ask her what he came to ask her.

"Wait a second Cindy I wanted to ask you something!" The Gray Raven managed to blurt out before Cindy walked out of earshot.

Cindy stopped dead in her tracks and turned before replying, "Yeah Raven what is it?"

"Well I was wondering if you're still together with that guy you said you were dating before we left in pursuit of the legged ship?" Tim spat out quickly before he lost his nerve.

Cindy did not reply for a moment however after a few seconds a sly and somewhat seductive grin came on her face "Actually no I'm not. When we went back to PLANT I broke it off with him. Any particular reason you wanted to know Raven?"

"Well I um… I…what I mean to say is…no Cindy I was just curious." Tim finally managed to stutter out.

"Oh…well okay then. I guess I'll talk to you later then Raven." Cindy said disappointedly as she walked down the hall until she was out of sight.

Tim stood frozen for a moment a look of disbelief on his face. His body then became rigid and his fists clenched.

"DAMMIT!" Tim roared out as he slammed his fist into one of the metal bulkheads disgusted by his own inability to communicate his feelings.

"Uh Commander is something wrong?" Asked a concerned voice from behind Tim.

Tim spun around to find a concerned looking Athrun Zala staring into his angry and frustrated gray eyes.

"No Athrun nothings wrong." Tim seethed as he stormed off towards the hanger leaving behind a very confused Athrun.

_Fallen Angel_, Bridge, February 15, C.E. 71

Dr. Warren Faust stared almost obsessively into the computer screen mounted into his chair. He had received word from Shard that the Archangel had arrived in the Libyan Desert in the middle of ZAFT territory. However, the message stated that Faust was not to concern himself with that but with something of even greater importance.

Shard according to the message wished for Faust and Revenant to sabotage the operation that will drop the Tim Blackstar, Rodger Simmons, and Cindy Rollins of the Blackstar team along with Athrun Zala and Dearka Elseman of the Le Creuset team into the Libyan Desert. The instructions went on to give the coordinates to where the five pilots were to be dropped instead, a place that was dubbed by Shard as the 'Viper's nest'.

Faust had already gone and made the arrangements for what would need to be done. He had one of Shard's agents within ZAFT change the coordinates for the drop. After the drop was commenced the _Fallen Angel_ was to then proceed in and destroy all ZAFT forces while making sure it was impossible for the drop to be corrected.

Faust after looking over the information for about the fifth time looked at the watch on his left wrist. It was almost time for the drop to begin and the _Fallen Angel_ would need to be in position to commence the attack by that time.

Faust turned his attention to his helmsman and quickly barked out his orders "Set course for the ZAFT drop operation at maximum speed!" Faust then turned towards the officer in charge of the ships weapons systems "Begin charging the Lohengrin I want it ready to be fired by the time were in range of the ZAFT ships!"

Faust smiled as the crewman hurriedly began to carry out his orders. Faust looked at them for a few more seconds before he turned towards Allister.

"Call down the hanger and tell Commander Revenant and his mobile suits prepare for battle."

"Yes sir!" The young red headed officer said crisply as he opened up a channel with Commander Revenant's Viper "Commander Revenant can you hear me sir?"

"_Yes Allister what is it?"_ Came the curt response from Revenant over Allister's radio.

"Captain Faust wanted me to inform you and your team that we will soon be engaging in combat and that you should all be ready to go at a moments notice." Allister reported.

"_Thank you Allister and tell Dr. Faust we will be ready."_ Said Revenant's voice over the radio.

"Yes sir." Allister replied as he cut the link.

"Are they ready Allister?" Came the inquisitive voice of Faust from behind Allister.

"Yes sir. They are already in their mobile suits and are ready to go." Allister answered the vampire looking man.

"Excellent then as soon as we are in range the show can begin." Faust looked out the bridge windows with a large look of amusement on his face.

_Fallen Angel_, Hanger

After his brief talk with Allister Commander Revenant had radioed the rest of his team and told them to be ready to launch at any moment. After that he sat silently in the cockpit of his Viper thinking of the things that had brought him to this point.

The last thing he remembered as Miguel Aiman, the Magic Bullet of Dusk, was watching the "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship sword of the Strike Gundam slice right through the area below his cockpit and then the explosion caused by his GINN, which he thought, would extinguish his life.

But when he awoke he was reborn as a completely different person he was reborn as the man known as Revenant.

_When he awoke his entire body felt as though it had been ripped to shreds and was being reassembled one nerve connection at a time._

_He's right eye opened almost immediately as his body convulsed in pain but for some reason his left would not. _

_Once he had become used to the pain he began to look over his surroundings. He was in some kind of container that appeared to be made of hard plastic and was filled with a lucent lime green colored liquid and there was some sort of breathing apparatus attached to his mouth. As for his body there were several large gashes and scars from where shrapnel possibly pierced his body but aside from that and not being able to open his left eye he appeared to be fine._

"_Shard he is awake!" He could see a pale blonde man in black clothes and a white trench coat yell._

"_Are you sure Faust?" He heard a voice that sent chills up and down his spine._

"_Yes sir! See for yourself." The man called Faust pointed into the container at him._

_He could then see a tall man with spiky blood red hair and matching colored eyes look into the container at him and say "Drain the container I want to speak with Mr. Aiman._

_Miguel could feel the water begin to drain from the container and within a time frame of two minutes he found himself on his knees inside the container with the breathing apparatus thrown to the side. At of the corners of his eyes he could see the container being pulled up and Miguel felt a cold wave of air collide with his wet and bruised body._

"_Welcome back to the land of the living Mr. Aiman you've been dead for about two days so your body may be a little stiff." He heard the man with the icy voice say warningly. _

"_Dead! What are you talking about?" Miguel shouted finding himself unable to control the volume of his voice._

"_You are at L4 in the Mendel colonies right now Mr. Aiman my friend Dr. Faust and myself that is found you at Heliopolis and brought you here so that the good Doctor could restore you._

"_Mendel? Restore me? You still aren't making any sense!" Aiman shouted as he looked up at the redheaded man._

"_Dr. Faust while being a great surgeon is also a genetics expert and was able to replicate your critically damaged issue and organs however some parts of your body and about 36 of your skeletal structure had to be strengthened or reconstructed with metal and metal prosthetics" Shard paused to take a breath "Dr. Faust also discovered during the surgeries that most of your nervous system was either completely burnt out or was burning out so essentially that wave of pain you felt when you woke up will probably be some of the last pain you ever experience. That is what I mean when I say 'restored'." Shard finished._

_Miguel's head was spinning the only thing he could think to say was "Who are you?"_

"_My name is Shard Mitchells of the Earth Alliance and this is Dr. Warren Faust" Shard offered Miguel a hand and helped the stunned man up "and you are Miguel Aiman formerly of the ZAFT military."_

"_The Earth Alliance but that means you're the enemy!" Miguel said accusingly as he backed away from the crimson-eyed man._

_Shard merely shrugged off the comment and stopped closer to the younger blonde "True I am officially with the Earth Alliance but I'm actually opposed to both them and ZAFT."_

"_But then if you are why did you enlist with them? It doesn't make any sense." Said a very frustrated Miguel._

"_So that I could gain access to confidential information and technology of course while also trying to gain support." Shard replied frostily as though the answer was obvious._

"_Support for what?" A still very puzzled Miguel asked._

"_Support for my coupe against both the Earth Alliance and ZAFT both are becoming corrupt and misguided and I believe by removing them the world will gain the peace that it desires." Shard took another step towards Miguel who had backed up against a wall lined with machines._

"_Corrupt? The Earth Alliance maybe but definitely not ZAFT!" Miguel shouted at Shard in an attempt to stand up for his military._

"_The Earth Alliance is almost completely dominated by Blue Cosmos and it's leader Muruta Azrael while Patrick Zala who desires the destruction of the Naturals and planet Earth itself is coming to power in ZAFT." Faust answered this time instead of Shard._

_This information seemed to stun Miguel "But that's insane-."_

"_Yes it is that's why it is our goal to cripple both sides so that the corruption can be cleansed and so that peace and tolerance can begin." Shard cut him off._

"_So how many of you are there?" Asked an intrigued Miguel._

"_We are an organization made up of networks of operatives within the Earth Alliance and ZAFT so I guess we have enough numbers to pose a threat but we call ourselves the Partisans of Freedom or just Partisans for short." Recited Shard._

"_Is there anything I can do to help you?" Asked Miguel who was now stepping towards Shard._

"_Well we are a little lacking in mobile suit pilots and someone with your skills would be a useful addition to our forces, may mean you have to fight against your friends in ZAFT even kill them if it becomes necessary for our goals completion. Do you think you could do something like that?" Shard locked his eyes on the once clinically dead soldier."_

_Miguel paused for a moment. Could he do something like that if it ever came up? Could he kill someone like Athrun, Yzak, Nicol, or Dearka if push came to shove?_

_It was several more moments but Miguel finally locked his eye with Shard's and said simply "Yes."_

_A cold smile seemed to spread across Shard's face upon hearing this "Excellent Mr. Aiman you will serve as the mobile suit team commander for my flagship." _

_That seemed to take Miguel back a little "Team commander? But I just joined."_

"_Someone with your qualifications deserves such a position Mr. Aiman so I will give it to you." Shard said nonchalantly._

"_However you will need a new name. Miguel Aiman is dead so you will need a new name since you have been reclaimed from the underworld." Faust said from where he was standing._

"_I am a revenant, someone brought back from the dead, so maybe revenant I should be called. From now on I will be known as Revenant the Undead." Miguel concluded firmly as he looked at Shard "So what would you have your Revenant do?"_

"_Follow Faust he will take you to get your new uniform and mobile suit and from there you will follow my orders which will be relayed through Faust" Shard said as he turned towards and exit "as for myself I have to report to Ptolemaeus to pick up my new toy."_

_Shard then walked towards the exit without a word and left Revenant alone with Faust._

"_Come on let's get you integrated." Faust gestured for Revenant to follow and the two left the room to get Revenant's things together._

"That day seems as though it was so long ago…" Revenant said in a far off tone.

His reminiscing was cut short when Allister's voice boomed over his radio _"All units prepare for battle we are about to engage ZAFT!"_

"All right lets get this over with." Revenant muttered as he activated his Viper's systems and began to walk towards the _Fallen Angel's_ launch catapult.

_Laurasia_ class ship _Rutherford_, Re-entry capsule

Tim sat in the cockpit of his CGUE DEEP Arms with a nervous look on his face. He had never been a big fan of atmospheric reentry, the thought of just falling from so high up just seemed to terrify him for some reason.

"It's just damn perfect I get to go through atmospheric reentry and I still wasn't able to talk to Cindy it's just my damn luck." Tim sulked.

Standing beside his scarred CGUE was Cindy's new customized DINN and standing across from both of the suits was Athrun Zala's GAT-X303 Aegis.

"I wish they would just go ahead and drop us already. I'll admit I don't like doing this but they could at least speed the process up and quit torturing me." Tim covered his face with his hands and slumped down in his seat.

Right when Tim did this a voice boomed from the speaker system installed in the capsule "Attention we will be dropping the capsule momentarily as soon as the one from the _Bush_ is dropped so all technicians and other personnel please vacate the capsule at once."

"At last. At least Rodger and Dearka have to go first." Tim sighed as he sat back up and grabbed the controls of his machine until he felt sure his knuckles had turned white.

Tim sat like this for a good three minutes before he felt the pod disconnect from the ship and began it's descent "Oh shit."

Space near the ZAFT drop team

Revenant watched the capsules begin disengage from the Rutherford and Bush from nearby in cloaked Viper.

"As soon as the Fallen Angel fires it's "Lohengrin" commence the attack." The resurrected soldier said to his team over his radio.

"_Yes sir!"_ Was the quick response he received from the other members of his team.

Revenant watched as the pods fell deeper and deeper into the atmosphere for several minutes. Time seemed to be going by slowly and right when Revenant was getting frustrated and was about to call Faust he saw a brilliant stream of antimatter fly across space and lance right through the _Bush _causing the _Laurasia_ frigate to explode instantly.

"ATTACK NOW!" Revenant shrieked over the radio as he disengaged his suits Mirage Colloid and dove headlong towards the remaining ZAFT ships, which consisted of the _Rutherford_ and a _Nazca _class called _Reagan_.

Revenant saw two GINN Recon Types approaching him both firing their sniper rifles at his superior machine. Revenant grimaced as he aimed his TQM5 beam bazooka at one of the oncoming GINN's and fired. The shot connected squarely with the machines chest, which caused it to explode.

"And now for your friend." Revenant smirked as he fired his "Igellstellung X" CIWS at the other GINN's chest.

The high-powered rounds tore through the GINN's cockpit armor like it was made of paper ripping the coordinator inside the machine to shreds. Revenant then surveyed the battlefield to see how their sneak attack was progressing.

The _Fallen Angel_ was engaged in a winning battle with the _Rutherford_ and _Reagan_ firing it's "Gottfrieds" and CIWS at the two ships mercilessly. As for the mobile suits each of his men appeared to be fighting two ZAFT mobile suits all except for one. So if he destroyed two GINN's and there were at least nine mobile suits engaged with his men and all ZAFT ships could carry a compliment of six suits that left one mobile suit unaccounted for.

"Take this you bastard!" Revenant heard someone roar from behind him.

He quickly moved to the side and avoided a stream of bullets from a CGUE's Vulcan shield system.

"Ah so there you are. Well try this!" Miguel challenged as his Viper's shoulder compartments opened wide and unleashed an entire payload of missiles toward the enemy CGUE.

"Shit!" Revenant heard the pilot of the CGUE swear as the sixteen missiles unleashed by his Viper streaked towards the enemy machine.

While the CGUE pilot managed to avoid about ten of the missiles six still hit and critically damaged the machine. The machine lost is assault rifle along with it's right leg, left wing thruster, head crest, and large portions of armor all over it's body which made it look as though it could explode at any moment.

"You asshole!" The enraged pilot thundered as he drew his machines heavy sword and took off towards Revenant as fast as his battered machine would carry him while.

"Watch the language buddy." Revenant said nonchalantly to the enraged pilot while simultaneously releasing his beam bazooka and drawing one of his beam sabers.

The CGUE slashed at the Viper but Revenant blocked the attack with his beam saber. The CGUE's heavy sword, which was already cracked and fractured from the missiles explosions, was cut through like a hot knife through butter. In addition to having half of the sword burned off the heavy sword splintered and broke apart leaving almost nothing left of the blade.

"Blast you!" The CGUE pilot screamed as the CGUE itself backed away from the Viper.

"I used a beam saber on an almost broken sword did you honestly expect anything less?" Revenant mocked.

It was then that the battle was interrupted as the _Fallen Angel_ struck the deathblow to the _Reagan_ gutting the ship with it's "Gottfrieds".

"Oh no the _Reagan_!" The CGUE's pilot shouted as the ship crumpled slightly and exploded shouting shrapnel and debris all over the battlefield.

"Don't worry I will give you a quick death so that you may rejoin your comrades soldier." Revenant said to the pilot of the battered CGUE in a comfortingly.

"You bastard! I'll send you to Hell for that!" The foul-mouthed pilot of the CGUE declared as it began to fire it's shield's Vulcan gun again.

"That again? If it didn't work when I had my back turned to you what makes you think it'll work now?" Revenant turned off his beam saber and activated his Mirage Colloid.

"Ah shit! Where did he go?" The frustrated pilot asked aloud right as a beam sabers blade lashed out from nothingness and severed the barrels of his Vulcan shield.

"Right here." Revenant sneered menacingly as his Viper materialized in front of the battered CGUE.

"I'm not going down without a fight!" The pilot roared as he attempted to stab the Viper with what was left of his heavy blade.

With a precise flick of his Viper's saber Revenant severed the CGUE's right arm and fired his CIWS at the CGUE's optics completely shredding the sensitive and fragile cameras.

"Rest in peace soldier." Revenant said simply as he thrust his saber through the terminally damaged CGUE's chest.

Right as this was happening the _Fallen Angel_ fired it's "Lohengrin" at the _Rutherford _and split the frigate down the middle with a stream of antimatter fury. Both the _Rutherford_ and CGUE exploded simultaneously officially concluding the skirmish between ZAFT and Partisan forces.

Revenant had deactivated his Viper's beam saber and retrieved his beam bazooka and was now surveying the debris strewn battlefield. From what he could tell they hadn't lost any mobile suits although some had suffered some damage such as one of the Vipers losing an arm, however losses such as these were acceptable. Revenant saw his men beginning to return to the _Fallen Angel_ so he himself activated his thrusters and took off towards his mother ship.

_Fallen Angel_, Bridge

Warren Faust was sitting in the captain's chair of the _Fallen Angel _with an almost sickening look of satisfaction on his face. The battle had gone perfectly and Shard would be pleased to know that the plan went off without a hitch.

Faust broke away from his thoughts for a moment and turned towards Allister "Have all the mobile suits returned yet Allister?"

Allister seemed to speak into a microphone at his station and wait a few moments before replying with "Yes sir. Commander Revenant has just returned."

"Excellent. Now activate our albative gel dispensers and helmsman prepare to take us through the atmosphere." The doctor ordered his bridge crew.

Faust leaned back in his chair as he heard the bridge crew scurry about just like always to carry out his orders.

"_Once Shard takes his place as God of this world my desires will come true and she will be mine again." _Faust mentally sighed to himself as he remembered his motivation for helping his long time friend in his insane plot.

After that thought Faust closed his eyes and smiled at the thought of having her back in his arms as the Fallen Angel fell through the atmosphere.

Authors Notes: Finished at last! Sorry for the late update guys but like I said in my last set of notes I've been trying to get my Kingdom Hearts fic off the ground, had some trouble uploading the chapter and there have been other things too but I did try to go as fast as I could. Any way the next update may be late as well but I'll try my best to get it up a lot faster than this one. So until thirteen keep it real!

Rau Le Creuset 88


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